Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. Increases Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,070 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the period. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,727,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOG. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at about $33,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9,200.0% in the second quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 186 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. HWG Holdings LP purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 87.3% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.6 %

GOOG opened at $197.55 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.42 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.20, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.99. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $185.92 and its 200-day moving average price is $174.76. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $131.55 and a one year high of $202.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.55 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.40%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on GOOG. Citizens Jmp downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Pivotal Research boosted their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.56.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.42, for a total value of $234,331.14. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 26,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,516,745.58. The trade was a 4.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,084,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $369,672,512.16. The trade was a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.