D.A. Davidson & CO. Raises Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 288,712 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,806 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $54,982,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Citizens & Northern Corp lifted its stake in Alphabet by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Citizens & Northern Corp now owns 46,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,853,000 after acquiring an additional 283 shares during the period. Empower Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 2,059,130 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $392,141,000 after acquiring an additional 29,830 shares during the period. Droms Strauss Advisors Inc. MO ADV purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $205,000. CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in Alphabet by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,703,231 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $324,147,000 after purchasing an additional 31,337 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Evergreen Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 10.0% in the fourth quarter. Evergreen Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,473 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,614,000 after purchasing an additional 771 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the transaction, the director now owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at $52,329,576.64. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total value of $232,950.47. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 23,515 shares in the company, valued at $4,007,191.15. This trade represents a 5.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 134,299 shares of company stock worth $25,055,751. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on GOOG shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Pivotal Research boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.7 %

Alphabet stock opened at $181.58 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. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $131.55 and a 12 month high of $208.70. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $194.02 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $177.22. The firm has a market cap of $2.21 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. Analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

Alphabet 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.