3,672 Shares in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Bought by Ewing Morris & Co. Investment Partners Ltd.

Ewing Morris & Co. Investment Partners Ltd. acquired a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 3,672 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $699,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $27,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,824 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total value of $529,302.32. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,815,948.32. This represents a 15.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 146,824 shares of company stock valued at $25,086,603 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.9 %

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $155.75 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. The company has a market capitalization of $1.89 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $161.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $176.93. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The firm’s revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 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. Stockholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.54%. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.36%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “cautious” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup reiterated a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.94.

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.