GoalVest Advisory LLC Lowers Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

GoalVest Advisory LLC decreased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 40.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 845 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 566 shares during the period. GoalVest Advisory LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $161,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Weiss Asset Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter worth $33,000. HWG Holdings LP purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter valued at about $40,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 87.3% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 32.3% in the 3rd quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 344 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $57,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on GOOG. Seaport Res Ptn raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Pivotal Research raised their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.13.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.78, for a total transaction of $1,898,190.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 330,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $59,741,643.48. This represents a 3.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was 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 directly owns 23,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,007,191.15. This trade represents a 5.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG stock opened at $201.90 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $187.39 and a 200-day moving average price of $175.23. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $131.55 and a 52-week high of $203.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.47 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.78, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.55 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

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.