Taylor Hoffman Capital Management LLC Grows Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Taylor Hoffman Capital Management LLC raised its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 6,924 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 90 shares during the quarter. Taylor Hoffman Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,319,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 6.8% in the fourth quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 16,248 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,094,000 after purchasing an additional 1,041 shares during the period. Harvest Investment Services LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC now owns 4,329 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $824,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares during the period. North Forty Two & Co. purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $281,000. SageView Advisory Group LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 140.6% in the fourth quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 14,734 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,806,000 after purchasing an additional 8,610 shares during the period. Finally, Requisite Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $927,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total value of $3,245,761.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 1,449,286 shares in the company, valued at $265,914,995.28. This represents a 1.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,374 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total transaction of $238,347.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,606,213.28. This represents a 8.38% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 129,744 shares of company stock worth $20,968,366 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Scotiabank cut their target price on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 21st. KeyCorp dropped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Needham & Company LLC downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “cautious” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Benchmark restated a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $203.94.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $165.32 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $160.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $176.66. The company has a market cap of $2.01 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.54, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Alphabet Profile

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.