Wakefield Asset Management LLLP Invests $522,000 in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Wakefield Asset Management LLLP purchased a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 3,339 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $522,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Concentrum Wealth Management lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 17,328 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $3,300,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 10.6% in the 4th quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 593 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $113,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Kidder Stephen W lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Kidder Stephen W now owns 3,608 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $687,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Providence Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Providence Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 10,102 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,992,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Objectivity Squared LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Objectivity Squared LLC now owns 16,342 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,605,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the subject of several research analyst reports. KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $235.00 price objective (up previously from $220.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday. Pivotal Research upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Westpark Capital reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $215.19.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total value of $5,992,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,527,392 shares of the company's stock, valued at $466,000,536.96. This represents a 1.27% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 243,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 249,409 shares of company stock valued at $43,523,710 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG traded up $1.69 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $193.20. The stock had a trading volume of 45,163,229 shares, compared to its average volume of 26,053,214. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $208.70. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $176.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.34 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.58, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 35.22%. The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. The business's revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Company 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.