Morton Community Bank Acquires New Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Morton Community Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 17,070 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,231,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Schear Investment Advisers LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in the third quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 33,751 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,598,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares in the last quarter. Permanent Capital Management LP acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $273,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 27.9% during the third quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 25,275 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,192,000 after buying an additional 5,516 shares during the last quarter. Glass Wealth Management Co LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Glass Wealth Management Co LLC now owns 37,054 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,014,000 after buying an additional 1,580 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Olistico Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Olistico Wealth LLC now owns 8,981 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,700,000 after buying an additional 746 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $208.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, DZ Bank downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $210.59.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the sale, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 93,048 shares of company stock valued at $17,374,274. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $163.99 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $182.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $176.51. The firm has a market cap of $2.00 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $147.22 and a 1 year high of $207.05. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

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.