Howard Financial Services LTD. Has $811,000 Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Howard Financial Services LTD. decreased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,257 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 79 shares during the period. Howard Financial Services LTD.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $811,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Beck Bode LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 7.1% during the 2nd quarter. Beck Bode LLC now owns 67,523 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,385,000 after purchasing an additional 4,456 shares in the last quarter. Merriman Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 21.3% during the 2nd quarter. Merriman Wealth Management LLC now owns 15,524 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,847,000 after purchasing an additional 2,722 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 11.1% during the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 1,144,221 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $209,873,000 after purchasing an additional 113,916 shares in the last quarter. Circle Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 14.9% during the 2nd quarter. Circle Wealth Management LLC now owns 71,983 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,203,000 after purchasing an additional 9,314 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.5% during the 2nd quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 153,311 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $28,120,000 after purchasing an additional 11,998 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $197.55 on Monday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $185.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $174.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.42 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.99. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $131.55 and a 12 month high of $202.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business’s revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, 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 sale, the director now directly owns 330,466 shares in the company, valued at $59,741,643.48. The trade was a 3.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.42, for a total value of $234,331.14. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 26,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,516,745.58. The trade was a 4.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on GOOG. Barclays increased their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.56.

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.