Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Bought by Ballast Inc.

Ballast Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,736 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 114 shares during the period. Ballast Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $902,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 5,073 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $966,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Sunburst Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.1% in the third quarter. Sunburst Financial Group LLC now owns 2,959 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $495,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.6% in the third quarter. Johnson Financial Group LLC now owns 2,360 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $395,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC now owns 8,323 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,585,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Phillips Financial Management LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.6% in the third quarter. Phillips Financial Management LLC now owns 3,852 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $644,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.36, for a total transaction of $3,990,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,084,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $369,672,512.16. This trade represents a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. The trade was a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.6 %

Alphabet stock opened at $197.55 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $185.92 and its 200-day moving average is $174.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $131.55 and a 1 year high of $202.88. The company has a market cap of $2.42 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.20, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.55 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.40%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on GOOG shares. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Citizens Jmp lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.56.

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.