Turning Point Benefit Group Inc. Purchases New Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Turning Point Benefit Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 2,231 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $429,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,338,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,394,181,000 after acquiring an additional 51,226 shares in the last quarter. Ellis Investment Partners LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 10.0% in the 3rd quarter. Ellis Investment Partners LLC now owns 41,119 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,875,000 after purchasing an additional 3,737 shares during the last quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 8.5% in the third quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 116,039 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,401,000 after purchasing an additional 9,118 shares in the last quarter. OMNI 360 Wealth Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.7% during the third quarter. OMNI 360 Wealth Inc. now owns 4,851 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $811,000 after purchasing an additional 262 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sterling Investment Advisors Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the third quarter. Sterling Investment Advisors Ltd. now owns 18,921 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,163,000 after buying an additional 71 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.1 %

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $177.37 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.03, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $131.55 and a 1-year high of $208.70. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $193.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $177.66. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced 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 net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given 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 0.45%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the sale, the insider now owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,471,620.22. This trade represents a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total value of $232,950.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 23,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,007,191.15. This represents a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 134,299 shares of company stock valued at $25,055,751 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOG has been the topic of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Benchmark restated a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Pivotal Research increased their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

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.