Columbia Advisory Partners LLC Takes $278,000 Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Columbia Advisory Partners LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 1,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $278,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 43,005.6% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,086,250,000 after buying an additional 18,700,111 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 587.4% in the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 10,690,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,772,991,000 after acquiring an additional 9,135,056 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 116.4% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,670,225 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,437,957,000 after acquiring an additional 4,662,809 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 7.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,559,240,000 after purchasing an additional 4,567,275 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 18,810.2% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,434,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $807,700,000 after purchasing an additional 4,410,811 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $189.66 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $130.66 and a fifty-two week high of $201.42. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $183.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $173.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The company has a market cap of $2.32 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.55 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wolfe Research lifted their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Bank of America reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $208.15.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total value of $559,856.70. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,085,531.55. This represents a 12.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. The trade was a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 130,553 shares of company stock worth $23,817,951. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.