ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Increases Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. raised its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 35,148 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 803 shares during the period. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,910,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Aire Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Aire Advisors LLC now owns 11,772 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,645,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares during the period. Defined Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Defined Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,531 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $354,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares during the period. WealthCare Investment Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. WealthCare Investment Partners LLC now owns 3,473 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $482,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares during the period. Peoples Financial Services CORP. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Peoples Financial Services CORP. now owns 16,690 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,331,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the period. Finally, RAM Investment Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. RAM Investment Partners LLC now owns 7,550 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,055,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total transaction of $35,433.80. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 15,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,326,922.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total transaction of $35,433.80. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 15,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,326,922.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total transaction of $508,150.26. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 144,685 shares in the company, valued at $22,566,519.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 253,439 shares of company stock valued at $36,746,578 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL opened at $171.95 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $147.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $141.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.10. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $103.54 and a 1 year high of $174.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.77 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 30.01%. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.05 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.79 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.27%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. JMP Securities raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $187.82.

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.