Cathy Pareto & Associates Inc. Invests $948,000 in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Cathy Pareto & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 4,976 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $948,000. Alphabet accounts for about 0.9% of Cathy Pareto & Associates Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 27th biggest position.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Weiss Asset Management LP bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $33,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. grew its position in Alphabet by 87.3% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 32.3% in the 3rd quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 344 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $57,000 after buying an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kieckhefer Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $76,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,367 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.42, for a total transaction of $234,331.14. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 26,349 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,516,745.58. This represents a 4.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the sale, the director now owns 16,490 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 122,887 shares of company stock worth $22,470,464 in the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on GOOG. Citigroup lifted their price target on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp cut shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $205.80.

Alphabet Stock Up 2.6 %

GOOG traded up $5.08 on Thursday, hitting $202.26. The company had a trading volume of 7,747,870 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,797,256. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $131.55 and a 52-week high of $203.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.48 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $189.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $175.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.55 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.