Albion Financial Group UT Purchases 1,146 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Albion Financial Group UT lifted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 9.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 13,700 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,146 shares during the period. Albion Financial Group UT’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,609,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. MBB Public Markets I LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3,586.8% during the second quarter. MBB Public Markets I LLC now owns 361,788 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $66,359,000 after purchasing an additional 351,975 shares in the last quarter. Matrix Private Capital Group LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 6.0% during the second quarter. Matrix Private Capital Group LLC now owns 2,110 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $387,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Marathon Capital Management grew its stake in Alphabet by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. Marathon Capital Management now owns 11,320 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,076,000 after buying an additional 755 shares in the last quarter. Lummis Asset Management LP increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Lummis Asset Management LP now owns 18,959 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,477,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Select Equity Group L.P. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 624,862 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $114,612,000 after buying an additional 8,807 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. The trade was a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 23,515 shares in the company, valued at $4,007,191.15. The trade was a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Pivotal Research boosted their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target 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. Six investment 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.13.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.2 %

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $201.90 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.47 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.78, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99. 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 company’s 50 day moving average price is $187.39 and its 200-day moving average price is $175.23. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $131.55 and a 52 week high of $203.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.55 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

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.