St. Louis Financial Planners Asset Management LLC Buys 1,411 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

St. Louis Financial Planners Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 11.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 13,938 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,411 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 1.9% of St. Louis Financial Planners Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. St. Louis Financial Planners Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,639,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. LMR Partners LLP bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth $32,000. Denver PWM LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth about $41,000. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $53,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $66,000. Finally, Mendota Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 19.0% during the third quarter. Mendota Financial Group LLC now owns 401 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Loop Capital increased their target price on Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Pivotal Research increased their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Nine research 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. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $208.15.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total transaction of $550,702.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,468,029.04. The trade was a 13.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.78, for a total value of $1,898,190.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 330,466 shares in the company, valued at $59,741,643.48. This trade represents a 3.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of GOOGL opened at $196.00 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $130.66 and a 1-year high of $201.42. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $184.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $173.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.40 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.99, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.98.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.55 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Alphabet Company 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.