M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. Makes New Investment in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 3,645 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $690,000.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Alphabet from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $208.67.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL opened at $197.98 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The business has a fifty day moving average of $185.46 and a 200 day moving average of $173.55. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $130.66 and a 52-week high of $202.29. The stock has a market cap of $2.42 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.26, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.98.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.40%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.42, for a total transaction of $234,331.14. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 26,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,516,745.58. This represents a 4.93 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.78, for a total value of $1,898,190.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 330,466 shares in the company, valued at approximately $59,741,643.48. This represents a 3.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654 over the last quarter. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.