Liberty Square Wealth Partners LLC Invests $445,000 in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Liberty Square Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 2,379 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $445,000.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,991,725 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $22,470,344,000 after buying an additional 3,189,592 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 104,777,092 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $19,894,651,000 after purchasing an additional 1,219,606 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in Alphabet by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $17,376,706,000 after buying an additional 5,758,244 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $10,873,751,000 after purchasing an additional 7,917,625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Alphabet by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 39,148,500 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $7,455,571,000 after purchasing an additional 294,556 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on GOOG. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Susquehanna restated a "positive" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Morgan Stanley restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Tigress Financial reissued a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $203.94.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,374 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total value of $238,347.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at $2,606,213.28. This represents a 8.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 7,813 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. This trade represents a 2.50% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 164,654 shares of company stock worth $26,793,380. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock traded down $0.70 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $172.68. The company's stock had a trading volume of 12,347,197 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,146,811. The firm has a market cap of $2.10 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.42, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $208.70. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $160.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $176.45. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business 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. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.