Brookstone Capital Management Increases Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Brookstone Capital Management lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 6.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 333,688 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 21,378 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 0.9% of Brookstone Capital Management’s holdings, making the stock its 19th largest position. Brookstone Capital Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $63,167,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. LMR Partners LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Denver PWM LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter worth $41,000. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter worth $53,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at $66,000. Finally, Mendota Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 19.0% during the 3rd quarter. Mendota Financial Group LLC now owns 401 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on GOOGL shares. Wedbush raised their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Pivotal Research raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $207.90.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of Alphabet stock traded down $2.27 on Monday, reaching $189.77. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 7,504,154 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,874,508. The company has a market capitalization of $2.32 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $130.66 and a 52 week high of $201.42. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $182.62 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $172.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.55 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total transaction of $559,856.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,085,531.55. This represents a 12.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 154,387 shares of company stock worth $27,748,931. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Alphabet

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.