Scarborough Advisors LLC Buys 527 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Scarborough Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 24.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,726 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 527 shares during the quarter. Scarborough Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $519,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Spinnaker Trust raised its position in Alphabet by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Spinnaker Trust now owns 113,435 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $21,603,000 after purchasing an additional 898 shares in the last quarter. Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 33.0% during the fourth quarter. Maryland Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 266 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the period. PUREfi Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $1,550,000. ABC Arbitrage SA bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $717,000. Finally, Quadrant Private Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 48,716 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,278,000 after acquiring an additional 932 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the sale, the insider now owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,471,620.22. This trade represents a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total transaction of $232,950.47. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 67,029 shares of company stock valued at $12,625,003 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $185.67 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.27 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $194.56 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.81. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $131.55 and a 1-year high of $208.70.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on GOOG. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company 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 report on Tuesday, October 29th. Pivotal Research upped their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.13.

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.