Northstar Financial Companies Inc. Takes Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Northstar Financial Companies Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 9,112 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,735,000. Alphabet makes up 1.6% of Northstar Financial Companies Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,991,725 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,470,344,000 after purchasing an additional 3,189,592 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 104,777,092 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,894,651,000 after buying an additional 1,219,606 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in Alphabet by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $17,376,706,000 after buying an additional 5,758,244 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,873,751,000 after acquiring an additional 7,917,625 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Alphabet by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 39,148,500 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,455,571,000 after purchasing an additional 294,556 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,837,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 261,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,844,050. The trade was a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,374 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total transaction of $238,347.78. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,606,213.28. This represents a 8.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 164,654 shares of company stock valued at $26,793,380. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GOOG. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Westpark Capital reissued a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Three 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.94.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $173.98 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The business’s fifty day moving average is $160.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.47.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. 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. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

About Alphabet

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.