McGowan Group Asset Management Inc. Purchases New Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

McGowan Group Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 1,386 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $264,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 16,248 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,094,000 after buying an additional 1,041 shares during the last quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC now owns 4,329 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $824,000 after acquiring an additional 138 shares during the period. North Forty Two & Co. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $281,000. SageView Advisory Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 140.6% in the fourth quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 14,734 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,806,000 after buying an additional 8,610 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Requisite Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $927,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup restated a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, KeyCorp lowered their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.94.

Alphabet Trading Up 3.4%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $159.58 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $160.65 and its 200 day moving average is $176.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.94 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 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 results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. Alphabet’s revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,824 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total value of $529,302.32. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at $2,815,948.32. The trade was a 15.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 179,324 shares of company stock worth $30,153,353 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently 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.