GDS Wealth Management Purchases 141 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

GDS Wealth Management lifted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 8.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,834 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 141 shares during the period. GDS Wealth Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $349,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors grew its holdings in Alphabet by 8.4% in the third quarter. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors now owns 7,583 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,268,000 after purchasing an additional 586 shares during the period. West Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 20.2% in the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,403 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $402,000 after buying an additional 403 shares during the period. CWM LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 313,837 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $52,470,000 after buying an additional 2,831 shares in the last quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.4% in the third quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 18,156 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,035,000 after acquiring an additional 430 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wedmont Private Capital grew its stake in Alphabet by 2.3% in the third quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 83,762 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,770,000 after acquiring an additional 1,909 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $193.31 on Friday. 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 firm has a market cap of $2.37 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $131.55 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $192.33 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $176.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total transaction of $3,975,075.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $364,259,266.02. The trade was a 1.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research reports. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citizens Jmp downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.13.

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.