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

Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 110,620 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,832 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 0.6% of Ritholtz Wealth Management’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $21,066,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of GOOG. Mason & Associates Inc increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Mason & Associates Inc now owns 15,569 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,965,000 after purchasing an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. SignalPoint Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. SignalPoint Asset Management LLC now owns 23,682 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,510,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares in the last quarter. MPS Loria Financial Planners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 15.5% in the fourth quarter. MPS Loria Financial Planners LLC now owns 6,084 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,159,000 after acquiring an additional 818 shares during the last quarter. Winch Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Winch Advisory Services LLC now owns 65,288 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,433,000 after purchasing an additional 231 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rovin Capital UT ADV lifted its stake in Alphabet by 23.4% in the 4th quarter. Rovin Capital UT ADV now owns 2,908 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $554,000 after purchasing an additional 551 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 43,981 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. This represents a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $52,329,576.64. The trade was a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays lifted 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, Pivotal Research raised their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG stock opened at $197.55 on Friday. 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 Inc. has a 1 year low of $131.55 and a 1 year high of $202.88. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $185.56 and a 200 day moving average of $174.84. The company has a market cap of $2.42 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.20, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.55 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.61%.

Alphabet Company 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.