Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Bought by HM Payson & Co.

HM Payson & Co. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 504,474 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 1.6% of HM Payson & Co.’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. HM Payson & Co.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $95,497,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,186 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $363,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its holdings in Alphabet by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 728,575 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $120,834,000 after buying an additional 46,677 shares during the period. David J Yvars Group raised its holdings in Alphabet by 16.3% in the 3rd quarter. David J Yvars Group now owns 4,290 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $712,000 after buying an additional 600 shares during the period. WoodTrust Financial Corp increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.0% during the third quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp now owns 66,226 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,984,000 after purchasing an additional 682 shares during the period. Finally, BNC Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 3.5% during the third quarter. BNC Wealth Management LLC now owns 65,616 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,243 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Wolfe Research increased their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Alphabet from $232.00 to $220.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Bank of America reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $210.59.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $162.80 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $183.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.37. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.90 and a 52-week high of $207.05. The firm has a market cap of $1.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.22, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total value of $3,245,761.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 1,449,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $265,914,995.28. This trade represents a 1.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 93,048 shares of company stock valued at $17,374,274 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.