Dupree Financial Group LLC Buys Shares of 1,117 Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Dupree Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,117 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $213,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Childress Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Childress Capital Advisors LLC now owns 12,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,375,000 after acquiring an additional 518 shares during the period. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 214,473 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $40,844,000 after acquiring an additional 2,987 shares during the period. Vantage Point Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $655,000. Optas LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Optas LLC now owns 99,990 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,042,000 after buying an additional 250 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GDS Wealth Management increased its holdings in Alphabet by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. GDS Wealth Management now owns 1,834 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $349,000 after buying an additional 141 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Pivotal Research increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.13.

Alphabet Trading Down 3.2 %

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $187.14 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $131.55 and a one year high of $208.70. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $192.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $176.15. 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 capitalization of $2.29 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total value of $284,700.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 21,824 shares in the company, valued at $4,142,195.20. The trade was a 6.43 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet 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.