Hobbs Group Advisors LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Hobbs Group Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 66.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,904 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,360 shares during the quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,124,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Allstate Corp grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 3,178.3% during the 4th quarter. Allstate Corp now owns 149,294 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $28,432,000 after acquiring an additional 144,740 shares during the period. Maridea Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $1,516,000. RiverFront Investment Group LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 10.8% during the fourth quarter. RiverFront Investment Group LLC now owns 258,172 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $49,166,000 after purchasing an additional 25,140 shares during the period. Horizon Investment Services LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Horizon Investment Services LLC now owns 9,298 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,771,000 after buying an additional 153 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DnB Asset Management AS raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 919,090 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $175,032,000 after buying an additional 36,966 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total value of $1,962,705.76. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. This represents a 19.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.55, for a total value of $262,040.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,961,445.55. This represents a 6.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 104,812 shares of company stock worth $19,336,979 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Scotiabank lifted their target price 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. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $208.56.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $156.06 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $181.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $178.31. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.90 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.39, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $148.20 and a 52 week high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 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%. On average, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.51%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

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.