HCR Wealth Advisors Purchases 86 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

HCR Wealth Advisors raised its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 96,040 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 86 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 2.3% of HCR Wealth Advisors’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. HCR Wealth Advisors’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $18,180,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Schear Investment Advisers LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 17.0% in the 3rd quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 33,751 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,598,000 after acquiring an additional 4,905 shares in the last quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% in the third quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,423 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $771,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares in the last quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. raised its position in Alphabet by 27.9% in the 3rd quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 25,275 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,192,000 after purchasing an additional 5,516 shares during the last quarter. abrdn plc lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter. abrdn plc now owns 6,305,717 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,037,196,000 after buying an additional 611,233 shares in the last quarter. Finally, StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. now owns 21,509 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,567,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.36, for a total value of $3,990,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,084,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $369,672,512.16. This represents a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $196.00 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $184.08 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $173.33. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $130.66 and a one year high of $201.42. The stock has a market cap of $2.40 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued 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 business had revenue of $88.27 billion during 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 last year, the business posted $1.55 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Citizens Jmp downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. 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.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $208.15.

Alphabet Company 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.