Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT Raises Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT boosted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 202,008 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,301 shares during the period. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $38,470,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Swedbank AB lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,338,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,394,181,000 after buying an additional 51,226 shares during the last quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the third quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 56,210 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,398,000 after buying an additional 1,103 shares during the period. Viewpoint Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16.4% in the 3rd quarter. Viewpoint Capital Management LLC now owns 7,193 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,189,000 after purchasing an additional 1,012 shares during the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 15,926.6% in the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 594,907 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $99,463,000 after buying an additional 591,195 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Bank & Trust boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% in the third quarter. First Bank & Trust now owns 28,076 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,694,000 after acquiring an additional 127 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Pivotal Research upped their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.13.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG stock opened at $181.19 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.21 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $193.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $177.58. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $131.55 and a 52-week high of $208.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors 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 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares in the company, valued at $8,471,620.22. This represents a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total value of $3,245,761.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,449,286 shares in the company, valued at $265,914,995.28. This represents a 1.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 134,299 shares of company stock valued at $25,055,751 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.