Hickory Asset Management Inc. Takes Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Hickory Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 2,341 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $446,000.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at about $33,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. increased its position in Alphabet by 87.3% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 33.0% in the fourth quarter. Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 266 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total value of $232,950.47. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 23,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,007,191.15. This represents a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 67,029 shares of company stock valued at $12,625,003 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GOOG. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.13.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.6 %

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $185.67 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $194.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $176.81. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $131.55 and a one year high of $208.70. The company has a market capitalization of $2.27 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

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.