Avantax Advisory Services Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 6.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 308,337 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 20,011 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $58,720,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GOOG. Swedbank AB lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,338,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,394,181,000 after purchasing an additional 51,226 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,843,149,000 after purchasing an additional 264,962 shares during the last quarter. Meridian Management Co. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Meridian Management Co. now owns 31,701 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,300,000 after purchasing an additional 1,377 shares during the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 100,510 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $16,804,000 after acquiring an additional 2,326 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Savvy Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 37.2% during the 3rd quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 12,256 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,049,000 after acquiring an additional 3,322 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on GOOG shares. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Benchmark reiterated a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total transaction of $5,374,012.74. Following the sale, the director now owns 272,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,376,238.74. The trade was a 9.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the business’s 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 directly owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 95,682 shares of company stock valued at $17,901,024. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $169.00 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.01 and a 52-week high of $208.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $188.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $178.02. The firm has a market cap of $2.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.