Ritholtz Wealth Management Buys 5,832 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 110,620 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,832 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 0.6% of Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings, making the stock its 25th largest position. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $21,066,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Weiss Asset Management LP bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 9,200.0% during the second quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 186 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the period. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. HWG Holdings LP purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 87.3% during 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.42, for a total transaction of $234,331.14. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 26,349 shares in the company, valued at $4,516,745.58. This represents a 4.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.78, for a total value of $1,898,190.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 330,466 shares in the company, valued at $59,741,643.48. This represents a 3.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.6 %

GOOG opened at $197.55 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.42 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.20, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.99. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $131.55 and a one year high of $202.88. 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 business’s 50 day moving average price is $185.56 and its 200 day moving average price is $174.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The company’s revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.55 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.61%.

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.