SlateStone Wealth LLC Boosts Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

SlateStone Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 69,603 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,033 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 1.3% of SlateStone Wealth LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest holding. SlateStone Wealth LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $9,809,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 11.3% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 95,941,129 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,649,838,000 after buying an additional 9,703,425 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $11,600,970,000. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 120,234,117 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,852,868,000 after purchasing an additional 4,348,188 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 198.7% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 3,882,882 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $547,215,000 after purchasing an additional 2,583,128 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 93.9% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,591,383 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $647,064,000 after purchasing an additional 2,222,950 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.70, for a total value of $2,985,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,332,691 shares in the company, valued at $309,548,095.70. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.70, for a total value of $2,985,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,332,691 shares in the company, valued at $309,548,095.70. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.56, for a total value of $127,648.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 7,991 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,275,043.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 251,339 shares of company stock worth $36,377,482. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on GOOG. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Raymond James lifted their target price on Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Susquehanna lifted their target price on Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $159.86.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOG stock opened at $161.10 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.00 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.78, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.10. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $148.20 and a 200 day moving average price of $142.40. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $103.27 and a 1-year high of $161.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $85.28 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 24.01% and a return on equity of 27.22%. The firm’s revenue was up 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.05 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.