Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Bought by Ridgewood Investments LLC

Ridgewood Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 25,605 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 750 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 2.3% of Ridgewood Investments LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. Ridgewood Investments LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,847,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Schear Investment Advisers LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in the third quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 33,751 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,598,000 after acquiring an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% in the third quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,423 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $771,000 after acquiring an additional 190 shares during the last quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 27.9% in the third quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 25,275 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,192,000 after acquiring an additional 5,516 shares during the last quarter. abrdn plc increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10.7% in the third quarter. abrdn plc now owns 6,305,717 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,037,196,000 after acquiring an additional 611,233 shares during the last quarter. Finally, StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% in the third quarter. StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. now owns 21,509 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,567,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $210.00 price target (up from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $217.00 price target (up from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Loop Capital upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $207.08.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL traded down $1.63 during trading on Friday, reaching $192.32. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 12,370,503 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,937,000. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $2.35 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $130.66 and a 12 month high of $201.42. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $182.20 and a 200 day moving average price of $173.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.55 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.95, for a total transaction of $247,425.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 26,324 shares in the company, valued at $4,342,143.80. This trade represents a 5.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.23, for a total transaction of $473,929.82. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 26,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,406,343.27. This trade represents a 9.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 155,887 shares of company stock worth $27,996,356. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet 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.