Western Pacific Wealth Management LP Purchases 1,455 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Western Pacific Wealth Management LP increased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 7.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 21,527 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,455 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 3.3% of Western Pacific Wealth Management LP’s holdings, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Western Pacific Wealth Management LP’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,075,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Bennett Selby Investments LP increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Bennett Selby Investments LP now owns 1,354 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $256,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,845 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,864,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the period. Denver PWM LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 25.4% during the third quarter. Denver PWM LLC now owns 281 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the period. Ignite Planners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Ignite Planners LLC now owns 15,078 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,892,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fermata Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC now owns 7,433 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,407,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wolfe Research increased their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $217.00 price target (up previously from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. DZ Bank downgraded Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on Alphabet from $232.00 to $229.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.62.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.6 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $186.47 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $191.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $174.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.84. The stock has a market cap of $2.28 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.99. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $130.66 and a 1 year high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total value of $232,950.47. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 23,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,007,191.15. This represents a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.22, for a total transaction of $291,330.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 23,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,529,987.28. The trade was a 6.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 89,529 shares of company stock worth $16,600,078 in the last three months. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

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.