Meriwether Wealth & Planning LLC Takes Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Meriwether Wealth & Planning LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 1,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $336,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 20,990.0% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,186,748 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,171,151,000 after purchasing an additional 6,157,413 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 18.7% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 29,866,698 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,792,317,000 after purchasing an additional 4,694,621 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 7.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,559,240,000 after purchasing an additional 4,567,275 shares in the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter valued at about $513,024,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,154,651,000 after purchasing an additional 2,626,431 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total transaction of $5,374,012.74. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 272,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 ninety days, insiders sold 93,048 shares of company stock worth $17,374,274. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $163.99 on Friday. 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 one year low of $147.22 and a one year high of $207.05. The stock has a market cap of $2.00 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $182.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $176.51.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS 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%. On average, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, DZ Bank lowered shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.59.

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.