Meritage Portfolio Management Reduces Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Apr 26th, 2023

Meritage Portfolio Management decreased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Rating) by 4.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 420,999 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 20,204 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 2.9% of Meritage Portfolio Management’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Meritage Portfolio Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $37,145,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. VitalStone Financial LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. IAG Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3,275.0% in the 3rd quarter. IAG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 270 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 262 shares in the last quarter. Artemis Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1,900.0% in the 3rd quarter. Artemis Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 280 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 266 shares in the last quarter. Laurel Wealth Planning LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 1,900.0% in the 3rd quarter. Laurel Wealth Planning LLC now owns 300 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 285 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Coston McIsaac & Partners raised its position in Alphabet by 1,900.0% in the 3rd quarter. Coston McIsaac & Partners now owns 320 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 304 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 34.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Loop Capital boosted their target price on Alphabet from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their target price on Alphabet from $130.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 20th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Alphabet from $120.00 to $117.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 31st. KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $118.00 to $117.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 30th. Finally, New Street Research started coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, January 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $118.00 price target for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $131.30.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $103.85 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $99.56 and its 200 day moving average is $96.44. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $83.34 and a fifty-two week high of $122.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.33 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.82, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 2.34 and a current ratio of 2.38.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The information services provider reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.14 by ($0.09). Alphabet had a net margin of 21.20% and a return on equity of 23.54%. The company had revenue of $76.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $63.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.53 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 32,379 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.46, for a total value of $3,349,931.34. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 76,580 shares in the company, valued at $7,922,966.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 637 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.87, for a total value of $63,617.19. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 25,282 shares in the company, valued at $2,524,913.34. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 32,379 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.46, for a total value of $3,349,931.34. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 76,580 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,922,966.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 100,539 shares of company stock worth $10,209,164. Company insiders own 11.44% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Profile

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Alphabet, Inc engages in the business of delivering online advertising, cloud-based solutions that provide enterprise customers with infrastructure and platform services, the provision of communication and collaboration tools, and sales of other products and services such as apps and in-app purchases, hardware, and subscription-based products.