Pinkerton Retirement Specialists LLC Purchases Shares of 1,957 Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Pinkerton Retirement Specialists LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 1,957 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $273,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. RWQ Financial Management Services Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. RWQ Financial Management Services Inc. now owns 61,499 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,591,000 after buying an additional 4,664 shares during the period. Ballast Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.6% in the third quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC now owns 15,747 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,061,000 after buying an additional 1,385 shares during the period. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.0% in the third quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,623 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $998,000 after buying an additional 564 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the third quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 4,416,533 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $577,908,000 after buying an additional 104,366 shares during the period. Finally, NatWest Group plc lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 239.0% in the fourth quarter. NatWest Group plc now owns 100,793 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,080,000 after buying an additional 71,057 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on GOOGL. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $155.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $175.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $153.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Redburn Atlantic increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $174.00 to $172.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $155.61.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $157.73 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $102.63 and a 52-week high of $160.22. The stock has a market cap of $1.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.19, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.10. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $145.33 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $139.80.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.77 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 24.01% and a return on equity of 27.22%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.05 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.14, for a total transaction of $3,198,150.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,400,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $341,163,148.74. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.14, for a total value of $3,198,150.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,400,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $341,163,148.74. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total transaction of $6,597,125.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,777,106 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $243,854,485.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 250,539 shares of company stock valued at $35,906,259 over the last three months. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.