Spahn Wealth & Retirement LLC Purchases New Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Spahn Wealth & Retirement LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 35,523 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,765,000. Alphabet makes up approximately 4.4% of Spahn Wealth & Retirement LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest holding.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 104,777,092 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,894,651,000 after purchasing an additional 1,219,606 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 30,824,307 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,870,181,000 after buying an additional 875,480 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,166,070,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.5% in 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 acquiring an additional 264,962 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,483,070 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,615,516,000 after acquiring an additional 144,170 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 272,466 shares in the company, valued at $50,376,238.74. This represents a 9.64 % 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 John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total value of $284,700.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 21,824 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,142,195.20. This represents a 6.43 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 87,297 shares of company stock valued at $15,936,270 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.0 %

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $158.86 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $148.20 and a 12 month high of $208.70. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $179.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $178.56. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company has a market capitalization of $1.94 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 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%. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on GOOG. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Westpark Capital initiated coverage on Alphabet in a report on Tuesday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $210.00 price target for the company. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $208.65.

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.