Kozak & Associates Inc. Boosts Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Kozak & Associates Inc. grew its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 5.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,759 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 191 shares during the quarter. Kozak & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $721,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Iowa State Bank boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Iowa State Bank now owns 50,783 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,613,000 after acquiring an additional 348 shares during the last quarter. Bard Financial Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Bard Financial Services Inc. now owns 59,090 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,186,000 after buying an additional 1,110 shares during the last quarter. Capital Market Strategies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital Market Strategies LLC now owns 11,096 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,101,000 after buying an additional 219 shares during the period. Boltwood Capital Management boosted its position in Alphabet by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Boltwood Capital Management now owns 23,593 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,466,000 after acquiring an additional 886 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CWA Asset Management Group LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 100,467 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,018,000 after acquiring an additional 4,377 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on GOOGL. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $190.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wedbush lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. Loop Capital increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $206.82.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL traded up $4.54 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $196.33. The stock had a trading volume of 16,937,126 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,273,051. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.40 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $130.66 and a 52 week high of $201.42. The company’s fifty day moving average is $180.24 and its two-hundred day moving average is $172.46.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly 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 net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.55 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,471,620.22. This represents a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total transaction of $559,856.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares in the company, valued at $4,085,531.55. This trade represents a 12.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 155,887 shares of company stock worth $27,996,356 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

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.