Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC Acquires 12,790 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 34.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 50,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,790 shares during the period. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $9,576,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several 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 fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on GOOG. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Scotiabank reduced their price target 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, Westpark Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $203.94.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director now owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total transaction of $3,245,761.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 1,449,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $265,914,995.28. This represents a 1.21% 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. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $165.32 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.01 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $160.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $176.66.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The business’s revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio 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.