Somerset Trust Co Acquires 199 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Somerset Trust Co boosted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,121 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 199 shares during the quarter. Somerset Trust Co’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,159,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,845 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,864,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Denver PWM LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 25.4% in the third quarter. Denver PWM LLC now owns 281 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Ignite Planners LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Ignite Planners LLC now owns 15,078 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,892,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC now owns 7,433 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,407,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Winch Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Winch Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,386 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $830,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Alphabet from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. China Renaissance upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Wolfe Research upped their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $217.00 price objective (up previously from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $208.15.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $196.00 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $184.43 and a 200 day moving average of $173.25. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $130.66 and a 12 month high of $201.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.40 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.55 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total value of $3,239,868.40. Following the sale, the insider now owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,471,620.22. This trade represents a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet 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.