Vaughan David Investments LLC IL Buys 330 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Vaughan David Investments LLC IL raised its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 6.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 5,482 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 330 shares during the period. Vaughan David Investments LLC IL’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,044,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Weiss Asset Management LP bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $25,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $33,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 87.3% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the period. Finally, FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 287.9% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 225 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 167 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $172.22 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $131.55 and a 1 year 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’s 50 day simple moving average is $192.17 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $177.65. The company has a market cap of $2.10 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Research analysts predict 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 issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.22, for a total value of $291,330.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 23,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,529,987.28. This represents a 6.04 % 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 value of $232,950.47. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 23,515 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 134,309 shares of company stock worth $25,057,490. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Citizens Jmp lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Benchmark reiterated a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

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.