Valmark Advisers Inc. Purchases 107 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Valmark Advisers Inc. grew its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 21,107 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 107 shares during the period. Valmark Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,996,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Stanich Group LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $225,000. MOKAN Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,020,000. Meixler Investment Management Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 21.0% during the 4th quarter. Meixler Investment Management Ltd. now owns 3,652 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $691,000 after purchasing an additional 635 shares during the period. L.M. Kohn & Company raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. L.M. Kohn & Company now owns 45,544 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,621,000 after acquiring an additional 737 shares during the period. Finally, Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 63,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,940,000 after purchasing an additional 1,425 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.1 %

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $170.33 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $130.66 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.08 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $190.58 and its 200 day moving average is $176.11. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Alphabet from $232.00 to $220.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $229.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. DA Davidson upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $210.62.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total value of $3,245,761.20. Following the sale, the insider now owns 1,449,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $265,914,995.28. This trade represents a 1.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 134,309 shares of company stock valued at $25,057,490 in the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.