12,665 Shares in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Purchased by Guardian Partners Inc.

Guardian Partners Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 12,665 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,475,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Fortis Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Fortis Capital Management LLC now owns 59,366 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,306,000 after buying an additional 799 shares during the last quarter. Fox Run Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $719,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $328,018,000. Sfmg LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. Sfmg LLC now owns 74,592 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,205,000 after acquiring an additional 4,654 shares during the period. Finally, Intellus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,683,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research reports. Citizens Jmp cut Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated 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 given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.7 %

GOOG stock opened at $166.25 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company’s 50 day moving average is $184.37 and its 200 day moving average is $178.07. The stock has a market cap of $2.03 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $148.20 and a 1-year high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share 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%. Sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total value of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,471,620.22. This represents a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.55, for a total value of $262,040.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,961,445.55. This represents a 6.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 93,048 shares of company stock valued at $17,374,274 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.