Columbia Advisory Partners LLC Invests $278,000 in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Columbia Advisory Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 1,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $278,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. LMR Partners LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth $32,000. Denver PWM LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $41,000. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter valued at about $53,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $66,000. Finally, Mendota Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 19.0% during the third quarter. Mendota Financial Group LLC now owns 401 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $67,000 after buying an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total value of $559,856.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,085,531.55. This trade represents a 12.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. The trade was a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 130,553 shares of company stock worth $23,817,951. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GOOGL. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Alphabet from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Loop Capital boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $208.15.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $189.66 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $2.32 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98. 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 moving average price of $183.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $173.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $130.66 and a 12-month high of $201.42.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results 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 analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.55 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

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.