Riverbend Wealth Management LLC Invests $717,000 in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Riverbend Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 3,764 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $717,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% in the third 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 during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.5% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,843,149,000 after acquiring an additional 264,962 shares during the period. Summit Wealth & Retirement Planning Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.2% in the third quarter. Summit Wealth & Retirement Planning Inc. now owns 5,164 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $863,000 after acquiring an additional 160 shares during the period. Costello Asset Management INC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% in the third quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 29,710 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,967,000 after buying an additional 660 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Liberty Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% in the third quarter. Liberty Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,270 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,884,000 after buying an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total transaction of $559,856.70. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,085,531.55. This represents a 12.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total value of $5,374,012.74. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 272,466 shares in the company, valued at $50,376,238.74. The trade was a 9.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 97,182 shares of company stock valued at $18,192,354. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark reiterated a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.13.

Alphabet Stock Down 4.5 %

GOOG opened at $167.81 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $2.05 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $189.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $178.09. 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 Inc. has a 12 month low of $137.07 and a 12 month high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

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.