Waverly Advisors LLC Has $17.50 Million Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Waverly Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 19.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 91,908 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,793 shares during the period. Waverly Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $17,503,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $171.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Needham & Company LLC cut Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “cautious” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Tigress Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $203.94.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 129,744 shares of company stock worth $20,968,366. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $167.87 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $208.70. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $160.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $176.74.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced 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 company had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current 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 dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

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.