Sterling Investment Advisors Ltd. Acquires 515 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Sterling Investment Advisors Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 19,436 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 515 shares during the period. Sterling Investment Advisors Ltd.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,701,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,338,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,394,181,000 after acquiring an additional 51,226 shares in the last quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV increased its holdings in Alphabet by 0.6% in the third quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 113,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $18,914,000 after purchasing an additional 623 shares in the last quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 3.7% in the third quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC now owns 16,076 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,688,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. S.A. Mason LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 1.5% in the third quarter. S.A. Mason LLC now owns 5,325 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $890,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldstone Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter worth approximately $461,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total value of $3,245,761.20. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 1,449,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $265,914,995.28. This represents a 1.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total value of $232,950.47. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,007,191.15. This represents a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 134,309 shares of company stock worth $25,057,490 in the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on GOOG. Citizens Jmp lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $172.22 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $131.55 and a 1 year high of $208.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The firm has a market cap of $2.10 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.39, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $192.17 and a 200-day moving average price of $177.65.

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, 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 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend 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.