Vantage Financial Partners LLC Acquires New Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Vantage Financial Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 1,147 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $218,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Noble Wealth Management PBC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Finally, FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 287.9% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 225 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 167 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.4 %

GOOG stock opened at $174.21 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.64, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $190.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $177.89. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $132.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued 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 0.46%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,606,213.28. This represents a 8.38 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 134,316 shares of company stock worth $25,062,887 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Benchmark reissued a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.