Meritas Wealth Management LLC Purchases Shares of 1,350 Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Meritas Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 1,350 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $206,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Partnership Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Equitec Proprietary Markets LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $28,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $34,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on GOOG. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 target price for the company. in a report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $167.86.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.92, for a total transaction of $266,880.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,727 shares in the company, valued at $663,107.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.79, for a total transaction of $105,566.78. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,284 shares in the company, valued at $4,532,870.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.92, for a total value of $266,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 3,727 shares in the company, valued at $663,107.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 146,284 shares of company stock worth $24,534,393 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $183.42 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.15, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.83 and a 1 year high of $187.50. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $174.40 and a 200 day simple moving average of $155.68. The firm has a market cap of $2.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.38. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. The business had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $78.75 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.17 earnings per share. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 15.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a — dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 12.27%.

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.