William B. Walkup & Associates Inc. Purchases New Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

William B. Walkup & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 285 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $54,000.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC boosted its position 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 purchasing an additional 1,041 shares in the last quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC now owns 4,329 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $824,000 after acquiring an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. North Forty Two & Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $281,000. SageView Advisory Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 140.6% during the fourth quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 14,734 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,806,000 after acquiring an additional 8,610 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Requisite Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $927,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $171.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Scotiabank cut their target price on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Westpark Capital reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $203.94.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOG opened at $167.87 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $160.17 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $176.74. 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 $2.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.85, a PEG 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.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total value of $5,066,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,652,696 shares in the company, valued at $413,555,306.40. This represents a 1.21% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,374 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total transaction of $238,347.78. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,606,213.28. The trade was a 8.38% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 129,744 shares of company stock worth $20,968,366. 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.