Marion Wealth Management Buys 339 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Marion Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 21,666 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 339 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 1.1% of Marion Wealth Management’s holdings, making the stock its 27th largest holding. Marion Wealth Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,101,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,845 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,864,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the period. Denver PWM LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 25.4% during the third quarter. Denver PWM LLC now owns 281 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. First PREMIER Bank grew its holdings in Alphabet by 3.8% in the third quarter. First PREMIER Bank now owns 1,655 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $275,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. Cutler Investment Counsel LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.7% in the third quarter. Cutler Investment Counsel LLC now owns 3,663 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $607,000 after buying an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MKT Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. MKT Advisors LLC now owns 7,363 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,221,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total value of $284,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,824 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,142,195.20. This trade represents a 6.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.42, for a total value of $234,331.14. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 26,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,516,745.58. This trade represents a 4.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 153,053 shares of company stock worth $27,559,701 over the last three months. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on GOOGL. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Wedbush boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $217.00 price target (up from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $210.00 target price (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $208.15.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $191.01 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The company has a market capitalization of $2.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $183.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $172.99. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $130.66 and a 1 year high of $201.42.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

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.