Centricity Wealth Management LLC Purchases New Shares in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Centricity Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 1,061 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $202,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth $33,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 87.3% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 33.0% during the 4th quarter. Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 266 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on GOOG. Citizens Jmp cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. This represents a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total transaction of $232,950.47. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,515 shares in the company, valued at $4,007,191.15. This represents a 5.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 134,299 shares of company stock valued at $25,055,751. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.2 %

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $181.19 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $193.68 and its two-hundred day moving average is $177.58. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $131.55 and a 12 month high of $208.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.21 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.51, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

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.