Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. Increases Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,405 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $336,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Meritage Group LP boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1,061.5% in the third quarter. Meritage Group LP now owns 302 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 276 shares during the period. Macroview Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 165.8% in the third quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 319 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares during the period. Armor Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 31.0% in the fourth quarter. Armor Investment Advisors LLC now owns 338 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $55,000. Finally, LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 301.5% in the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 522 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $73,000 after purchasing an additional 392 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Alphabet from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Wedbush boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Alphabet from $165.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $190.60.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.7 %

GOOGL stock opened at $163.86 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $149.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $141.95. The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $103.71 and a 52-week high of $174.71. The firm has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.13, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.40. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. The business had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $66.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.17 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 10th.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total value of $3,291,525.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,377,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $347,832,416.39. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total value of $3,291,525.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,377,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $347,832,416.39. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total transaction of $508,150.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 144,685 shares in the company, valued at $22,566,519.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 275,129 shares of company stock valued at $40,382,765. 0.88% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.