Savant Capital LLC Acquires 11,138 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Savant Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 7.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 153,140 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,138 shares during the quarter. Savant Capital LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $29,164,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. M&G PLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,240,000. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 16,248 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,094,000 after purchasing an additional 1,041 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 14.4% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 116,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,642,000 after purchasing an additional 14,738 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 301,980 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $50,488,000 after purchasing an additional 4,292 shares during the period. Finally, Requisite Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $927,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. UBS Group lifted their price target on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Citizens Jmp cut Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Six 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 data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.13.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.3 %

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $187.88 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $131.55 and a twelve month high of $208.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.30 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $193.89 and its 200 day moving average is $176.47.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly 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 return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total value of $3,975,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares in the company, valued at $364,259,266.02. This trade represents a 1.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Alphabet

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.