NorthRock Partners LLC Purchases 49,810 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

NorthRock Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 356.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 63,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 49,810 shares during the quarter. NorthRock Partners LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $12,145,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total value of $5,066,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,652,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $413,555,306.40. This trade represents a 1.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,824 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total transaction of $529,302.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,815,948.32. The trade was a 15.82% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 179,324 shares of company stock worth $30,153,353. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Benchmark reiterated a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Scotiabank decreased their target price on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Westpark Capital restated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Tigress Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $203.94.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $160.89 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The firm has a market cap of $1.95 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $160.39 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $176.86.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. Alphabet’s revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.36%.

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.