Spire Wealth Management Acquires 7,796 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Spire Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 8.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 100,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,796 shares during the quarter. Spire Wealth Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $19,097,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 114,802,133 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,193,768,000 after purchasing an additional 5,655,022 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 10.3% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,334,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,573,125,000 after buying an additional 3,113,395 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in Alphabet by 65.9% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 6,294,332 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,052,349,000 after buying an additional 2,500,621 shares during the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 182.1% in the 3rd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 2,526,055 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $422,331,000 after buying an additional 1,630,701 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.1% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,424,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,578,793,000 after acquiring an additional 1,291,274 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 6.9 %

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $193.30 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $191.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $175.91. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $131.55 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating 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. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.13.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $52,329,576.64. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total transaction of $232,950.47. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,515 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,007,191.15. This represents a 5.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078. 12.99% 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.