LJI Wealth Management LLC Acquires 98 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

LJI Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,472 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 98 shares during the quarter. LJI Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,042,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 42.8% during the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 6,511 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,089,000 after acquiring an additional 1,953 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its stake in Alphabet by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 1,544,297 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $256,177,000 after purchasing an additional 92,556 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,338,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,394,181,000 after buying an additional 51,226 shares in the last quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.7% during the third quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC now owns 4,725 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $796,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prospect Financial Services LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Prospect Financial Services LLC now owns 37,750 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,311,000 after acquiring an additional 859 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.9 %

GOOG opened at $185.43 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.03, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $193.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $176.40. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $131.55 and a 12 month high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Pivotal Research upped their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. UBS Group raised their target price on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.13.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total transaction of $3,975,075.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares in the company, valued at $364,259,266.02. This represents a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 89,529 shares of company stock worth $16,600,078. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.