Sovereign Investment Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 7,113 Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Sovereign Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 7,113 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,355,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sterling Financial Planning Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Sterling Financial Planning Inc. now owns 1,941 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $370,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Arlington Trust Co LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC now owns 14,423 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,747,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the period. Harrell Investment Partners LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Harrell Investment Partners LLC now owns 5,659 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,078,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. Ethos Financial Group LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC now owns 7,300 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,395,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the period. Finally, Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 5,073 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $966,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Citizens Jmp downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total transaction of $5,374,012.74. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 272,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,376,238.74. This represents a 9.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total transaction of $559,856.70. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,085,531.55. This trade represents a 12.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 95,882 shares of company stock valued at $17,934,130. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $167.62 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $187.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $178.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $141.13 and a 1-year high of $208.70. The stock has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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 issued 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 is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.