Accredited Investors Inc. Boosts Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Accredited Investors Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,277 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 598 shares during the quarter. Accredited Investors Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,081,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,283,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,871,384,000 after purchasing an additional 337,031 shares during the last quarter. Headinvest LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 0.8% in the third quarter. Headinvest LLC now owns 47,634 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,900,000 after buying an additional 363 shares during the last quarter. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at about $154,000. Dean Investment Associates LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 23.1% during the third quarter. Dean Investment Associates LLC now owns 2,025 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $336,000 after buying an additional 380 shares during the period. Finally, Hodges Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 11.8% during the third quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,009 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,821,000 after acquiring an additional 1,795 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. This trade represents a 2.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 115,663 shares of company stock valued at $20,286,447 over the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on GOOGL. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Citizens Jmp lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Citigroup decreased their target price on Alphabet from $229.00 to $195.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.72.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $156.31 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The stock has a market cap of $1.91 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $167.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $176.14.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its 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 net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. Sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.