Verity & Verity LLC Acquires New Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Verity & Verity LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 1,645 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $311,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GOOGL. State Street Corp grew its position in Alphabet by 0.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 222,555,548 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $36,910,838,000 after buying an additional 743,369 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 2.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,154,651,000 after buying an additional 2,626,431 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Alphabet by 7.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,559,240,000 after buying an additional 4,567,275 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 2.5% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 49,857,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,268,933,000 after buying an additional 1,237,385 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 1.4% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 37,233,079 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,175,106,000 after buying an additional 523,416 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $196.00 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $184.43 and its 200-day moving average is $173.25. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $130.66 and a 52-week high of $201.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The company has a market cap of $2.40 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.99, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.98.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.55 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date 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 Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. The trade was a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.42, for a total transaction of $234,331.14. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 26,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,516,745.58. This trade represents a 4.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on GOOGL. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $217.00 price objective (up previously from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $208.15.

About Alphabet

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.