Verity & Verity LLC Acquires New Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Verity & Verity LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 1,645 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $311,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. LMR Partners LLP purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth $32,000. Denver PWM LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 25.4% during the third quarter. Denver PWM LLC now owns 281 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the period. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter worth approximately $53,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth $66,000. Finally, Mendota Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 19.0% during the 3rd quarter. Mendota Financial Group LLC now owns 401 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $208.15.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock traded up $2.05 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $198.05. 29,356,516 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 23,514,902. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $184.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $173.33. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $130.66 and a one year high of $202.29. The company has a market cap of $2.42 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.98.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.55 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 2,834 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total transaction of $550,702.88. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,468,029.04. The trade was a 13.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 16,490 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,820,779.40. The trade was a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654. Insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

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.