Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 16,383 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 651 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 2.0% of Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest holding. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,102,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $18,672,198,000 after buying an additional 7,574,417 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Alphabet by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,178,470,000 after acquiring an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Truist Financial decreased their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. DZ Bank cut shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group set a $195.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Susquehanna lowered their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,374 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total value of $238,347.78. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,606,213.28. The trade was a 8.38% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total transaction of $1,962,705.76. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 49,037 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. This trade represents a 19.35% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 129,744 shares of company stock valued at $20,968,366. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $166.54 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $207.05. 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 50 day moving average price of $158.20 and a 200 day moving average price of $175.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. Research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

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.