Aspen Investment Management Inc Raises Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Aspen Investment Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,595 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 60 shares during the quarter. Aspen Investment Management Inc’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $685,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Swedbank AB grew its holdings in Alphabet by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,338,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,394,181,000 after purchasing an additional 51,226 shares in the last quarter. Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC now owns 54,102 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,045,000 after buying an additional 2,328 shares in the last quarter. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated boosted its position in Alphabet by 9.6% in the 3rd quarter. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated now owns 10,730 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,771,000 after buying an additional 944 shares during the last quarter. Busey Bank grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% during the third quarter. Busey Bank now owns 579,189 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $96,835,000 after acquiring an additional 5,041 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Heritage Oak Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $1,375,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the transaction, the director now owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly 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. Insiders have sold 134,299 shares of company stock worth $25,055,751 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays increased their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $181.58 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.21 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $131.55 and a 12-month high of $208.70. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $194.02 and its 200-day moving average is $177.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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 dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 9.94%.

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.