Advisors Asset Management Inc. Purchases 6,033 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 44.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 19,559 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,033 shares during the quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,725,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,843,149,000 after purchasing an additional 264,962 shares in the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 210,657 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $35,220,000 after purchasing an additional 2,151 shares in the last quarter. Cornerstone Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Cornerstone Advisors LLC now owns 591,000 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $98,809,000 after purchasing an additional 3,600 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 26.5% during the 3rd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 821,450 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $137,338,000 after purchasing an additional 172,077 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Overbrook Management Corp lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 7.9% during the 3rd quarter. Overbrook Management Corp now owns 159,459 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,660,000 after purchasing an additional 11,679 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GOOG. Citizens Jmp cut Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Scotiabank raised their price target on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.13.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. This trade represents a 2.50 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total value of $5,374,012.74. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 272,466 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,376,238.74. This represents a 9.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 93,048 shares of company stock worth $17,374,274. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG opened at $165.05 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $184.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $177.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $148.01 and a 1 year high of $208.70. The firm has a market cap of $2.01 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.50, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. As a group, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

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.