Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. Acquires 149 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,364 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 149 shares during the quarter. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,055,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Old North State Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 52.6% during the 3rd quarter. Old North State Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,540 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $588,000 after buying an additional 1,220 shares during the period. Kanawha Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 1.0% during the third quarter. Kanawha Capital Management LLC now owns 153,088 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $25,390,000 after acquiring an additional 1,485 shares in the last quarter. KG&L Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 14.2% during the third quarter. KG&L Capital Management LLC now owns 72,237 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,980,000 after acquiring an additional 8,984 shares during the period. Forum Financial Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% during the third quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 74,404 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,340,000 after acquiring an additional 1,597 shares during the period. Finally, Blue Square Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Square Asset Management LLC now owns 23,403 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,881,000 after purchasing an additional 1,001 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada lifted 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. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.90.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.66, for a total transaction of $3,772,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,159,885 shares in the company, valued at approximately $362,126,319.10. This trade represents a 1.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 21,467 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.35, for a total value of $3,442,233.45. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 39,334 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,307,206.90. This represents a 35.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,471,141. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL opened at $172.49 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $127.90 and a 12 month high of $191.75. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $165.61 and a 200 day simple moving average of $170.13.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.55 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.61%.

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.