Hardy Reed LLC Buys 60 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Hardy Reed LLC grew its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 50,661 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 0.8% of Hardy Reed LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest holding. Hardy Reed LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $9,590,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Advyzon Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $679,000. Meitav Investment House Ltd. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Meitav Investment House Ltd. now owns 307,068 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $58,131,000 after acquiring an additional 8,643 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 2,928,570 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $554,378,000 after acquiring an additional 120,381 shares during the period. WealthCare Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.0% during the 4th quarter. WealthCare Investment Partners LLC now owns 3,727 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $706,000 after purchasing an additional 211 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sunpointe LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Sunpointe LLC now owns 16,456 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,115,000 after purchasing an additional 349 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $170.92 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $130.66 and a 12 month high of $207.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.08 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $189.52 and its 200 day moving average price is $176.41.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,374 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,606,213.28. This represents a 8.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 134,316 shares of company stock valued at $25,062,887 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on GOOGL. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Citizens Jmp cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Robert W. Baird restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Bank of America reissued a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $210.62.

Alphabet Company 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.