Councilmark Asset Management LLC Purchases 79 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Councilmark Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,719 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 3.0% of Councilmark Asset Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Councilmark Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,517,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Platinum Investment Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 32.8% during the 4th quarter. Platinum Investment Management Ltd. now owns 380,015 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $72,370,000 after acquiring an additional 93,947 shares in the last quarter. North Forty Two & Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $281,000. Brooklyn FI LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 6,347.1% during the 4th quarter. Brooklyn FI LLC now owns 365,745 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $64,544,000 after acquiring an additional 360,072 shares in the last quarter. Xponance Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 1,169,976 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $222,810,000 after buying an additional 19,360 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Generali Asset Management SPA SGR acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $79,306,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, 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 note on Friday, January 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.13.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.3 %

GOOG opened at $162.67 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $1.98 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $186.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $178.10. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $147.01 and a 1-year high of $208.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. Analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total value of $3,245,761.20. Following the sale, the insider now owns 1,449,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $265,914,995.28. The trade was a 1.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.55, for a total transaction of $262,040.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,961,445.55. This represents a 6.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 93,048 shares of company stock worth $17,374,274 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by 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.