Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. Takes $624,000 Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 3,296 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $624,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 518.8% in the 4th quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares during the period. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $39,000. PayPay Securities Corp increased its position in Alphabet by 36.1% during the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. Finally, Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $53,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,340 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.16, for a total value of $5,075,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,685,196 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $419,320,207.36. This trade represents a 1.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 148,163 shares of company stock valued at $25,361,647. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wedbush set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $198.89.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock traded down $1.36 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $158.80. The company had a trading volume of 34,213,732 shares, compared to its average volume of 33,377,168. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $161.20 and a 200 day simple moving average of $175.49. The firm has a market cap of $1.94 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

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.