Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Buys 56,567 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 4.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,254,222 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 56,567 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 0.7% of Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 24th largest position. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $238,854,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 114,802,133 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,193,768,000 after acquiring an additional 5,655,022 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 103,557,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $17,247,208,000 after acquiring an additional 259,213 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,334,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,573,125,000 after acquiring an additional 3,113,395 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,424,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,578,793,000 after acquiring an additional 1,291,274 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,843,149,000 after acquiring an additional 264,962 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total transaction of $550,702.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,468,029.04. This represents a 13.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.22, for a total value of $291,330.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 23,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,529,987.28. The trade was a 6.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on GOOG shares. Scotiabank upped their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.13.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $201.90 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.47 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $131.55 and a 1-year high of $203.84. The business has a 50-day moving average of $187.39 and a 200 day moving average of $175.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.55 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio 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.