Warburton Capital Management LLC Takes Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Warburton Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 2,779 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $529,000. Alphabet makes up about 0.4% of Warburton Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest position.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,338,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,394,181,000 after purchasing an additional 51,226 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.5% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,843,149,000 after purchasing an additional 264,962 shares in the last quarter. Kennebec Savings Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter worth $1,208,000. Peregrine Asset Advisers Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 0.9% during the third quarter. Peregrine Asset Advisers Inc. now owns 11,566 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,934,000 after buying an additional 99 shares during the period. Finally, Jag Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1.6% during the third quarter. Jag Capital Management LLC now owns 35,292 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,901,000 after buying an additional 542 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Benchmark reissued a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Citizens Jmp downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.13.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,374 shares of the business’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 in the company, valued at approximately $2,606,213.28. The trade was a 8.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.22, for a total value of $291,330.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 23,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,529,987.28. The trade was a 6.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 97,182 shares of company stock worth $18,192,354. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $165.98 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $188.87 and a 200 day moving average of $178.08. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $138.21 and a 12 month high of $208.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. 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 (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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.94%.

Alphabet Company 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.