McNaughton Wealth Management LLC Grows Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

McNaughton Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,002 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 199 shares during the quarter. McNaughton Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,326,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Lantz Financial LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 10.8% during the 2nd quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 4,622 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $842,000 after buying an additional 452 shares during the last quarter. Spectrum Wealth Advisory Group LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $218,000. Vance Wealth Inc. grew its stake in Alphabet by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. Vance Wealth Inc. now owns 3,089 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $563,000 after buying an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 46,429 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,457,000 after purchasing an additional 1,338 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hodges Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17.8% in the 2nd quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. now owns 15,214 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,771,000 after purchasing an additional 2,302 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. The trade was a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total value of $550,702.88. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,468,029.04. This trade represents a 13.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $195.55 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $183.45 and a two-hundred day moving average of $173.04. The company has a market capitalization of $2.39 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.94, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.98. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $130.66 and a fifty-two week high of $201.42.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.55 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on GOOGL. Wedbush lifted their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Wolfe Research lifted their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Alphabet from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $208.15.

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.