Safeguard Financial LLC Acquires Shares of 1,741 Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Safeguard Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 1,741 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $245,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Tandem Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. HWG Holdings LP bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Equitec Proprietary Markets LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Buck Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Raymond James upped their price objective on Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $159.86.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $157.46 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $103.27 and a 12-month high of $161.70. The company has a market cap of $1.96 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.15, a PEG ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a current ratio of 2.10, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $147.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $141.72.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 24.01% and a return on equity of 27.22%. The firm had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $85.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.05 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,009,032.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total value of $3,291,525.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,377,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $347,832,416.39. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total transaction of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,920 shares in the company, valued at $4,009,032.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 251,339 shares of company stock valued at $36,377,482. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.