HTLF Bank Boosts Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

HTLF Bank raised its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 15,733 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 341 shares during the period. HTLF Bank’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,996,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at $25,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 87.3% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 32.3% in the 3rd quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 344 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on GOOG shares. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total transaction of $284,700.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 21,824 shares in the company, valued at $4,142,195.20. This represents a 6.43 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 89,529 shares of company stock worth $16,600,078 in the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG stock opened at $185.43 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $131.55 and a 52-week high of $208.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market cap of $2.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a fifty day moving average of $193.70 and a two-hundred day moving average of $176.40.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

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.