Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC Increases Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 17,950 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 84 shares during the quarter. Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,530,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Channel Wealth LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 16.0% in the 3rd quarter. Channel Wealth LLC now owns 21,905 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,888,000 after purchasing an additional 3,019 shares during the period. NorthRock Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 36.6% during the third quarter. NorthRock Partners LLC now owns 18,834 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,483,000 after acquiring an additional 5,049 shares during the period. GW Henssler & Associates Ltd. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.4% during the third quarter. GW Henssler & Associates Ltd. now owns 7,051 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $930,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. Drake & Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.3% during the third quarter. Drake & Associates LLC now owns 3,785 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $499,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the period. Finally, Kure Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth approximately $456,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research reports. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $165.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.73, for a total value of $119,784.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,164 shares in the company, valued at $1,072,665.72. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.49, for a total value of $93,086.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 28,602 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,903,886.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.73, for a total transaction of $119,784.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,164 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,072,665.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 252,629 shares of company stock worth $37,091,240 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG traded down $1.82 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $171.16. 13,649,296 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 22,634,053. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $152.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $144.21. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $107.72 and a one year high of $176.42. The company has a market cap of $2.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.02.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.38. The company had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $78.75 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. Alphabet’s revenue was up 15.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.17 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a — dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 10th.

Alphabet 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.