Essential Planning LLC. Acquires 148,745 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Essential Planning LLC. increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4,112.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 152,362 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 148,745 shares during the quarter. Essential Planning LLC.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $26,656,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Schear Investment Advisers LLC boosted 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 during the period. Permanent Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $273,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. raised its stake in Alphabet by 27.9% during the 3rd quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 25,275 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,192,000 after purchasing an additional 5,516 shares during the period. Glass Wealth Management Co LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Glass Wealth Management Co LLC now owns 37,054 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,014,000 after purchasing an additional 1,580 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Olistico Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 9.1% in the 4th quarter. Olistico Wealth LLC now owns 8,981 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,700,000 after purchasing an additional 746 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 93,048 shares of company stock valued at $17,374,274 in the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $232.00 to $229.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.59.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $167.68 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $182.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $176.73. The stock has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.83, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $147.22 and a 12 month high of $207.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share 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%. As a group, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current 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 given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.