RiverFront Investment Group LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

RiverFront Investment Group LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 10.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 258,172 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 25,140 shares during the period. RiverFront Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $49,166,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $25,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction 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 trade represents a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 104,812 shares of company stock worth $19,336,979 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $208.56.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $156.06 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 52 week low of $148.20 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $181.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $178.31. The stock has a market cap of $1.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. 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.