Certified Advisory Corp Grows Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Certified Advisory Corp lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 20,032 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 321 shares during the quarter. Certified Advisory Corp’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,792,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. LMR Partners LLP purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter worth $32,000. Denver PWM LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 25.4% during the third quarter. Denver PWM LLC now owns 281 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP purchased a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at about $53,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America bought a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $66,000. Finally, Mendota Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 19.0% during the third quarter. Mendota Financial Group LLC now owns 401 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $67,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on GOOGL. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $210.00 target price (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Loop Capital increased their price target on Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Citizens Jmp lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $208.15.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL opened at $196.00 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.40 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.99, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $130.66 and a twelve month high of $201.42. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $184.43 and its 200 day moving average price is $173.42.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm 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 firm earned $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.36, for a total transaction of $3,990,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,084,306 shares in the company, valued at approximately $369,672,512.16. This trade represents a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.