Paragon Financial Partners Inc. Buys 160 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Paragon Financial Partners Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,378 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 160 shares during the quarter. Paragon Financial Partners Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $617,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 61,587.1% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 130,046,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,539,004,000 after purchasing an additional 129,835,437 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1,807.4% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 57,069,444 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,487,226,000 after purchasing an additional 54,077,519 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,059,614,000. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 37.6% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 71,779,112 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,368,961,000 after acquiring an additional 19,612,974 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 95,941,129 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,649,838,000 after acquiring an additional 9,703,425 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.67, for a total transaction of $3,502,575.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,325,513 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $362,012,608.71. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.67, for a total transaction of $3,502,575.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,325,513 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $362,012,608.71. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total value of $508,150.26. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 144,685 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,566,519.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 250,539 shares of company stock worth $35,906,259 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of a number of research reports. Raymond James increased their target price on Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price target on Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $157.50.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOG stock opened at $159.19 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $146.51 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $141.11. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $103.27 and a twelve month high of $161.70. The firm has a market cap of $1.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.45, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 27.22% and a net margin of 24.01%. The business had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $85.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.05 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 earnings per share for the current year.

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.