Pacific Wealth Strategies Group Inc. Takes $1.04 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Pacific Wealth Strategies Group Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 5,437 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,035,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 42.8% during the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 6,511 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,089,000 after buying an additional 1,953 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its position in Alphabet by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 1,544,297 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $256,177,000 after acquiring an additional 92,556 shares in the last quarter. BlueSky Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. BlueSky Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 30,337 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,072,000 after purchasing an additional 994 shares during the last quarter. GenWealth Group Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 12.4% during the 3rd quarter. GenWealth Group Inc. now owns 1,455 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $243,000 after purchasing an additional 160 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 30.2% in the third quarter. Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,157 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $695,000 after purchasing an additional 964 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on GOOG. Seaport Res Ptn raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.13.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $364,259,266.02. The trade was a 1.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.6 %

GOOG stock opened at $187.07 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $193.42 and a 200-day moving average of $176.27. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $131.55 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. The company has a market capitalization of $2.29 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.24, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

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.