Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Has $19.09 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management grew its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 100,229 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,991 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $19,088,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Weiss Asset Management LP bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter worth approximately $33,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 87.3% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 32.3% in the third quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 344 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $57,000 after buying an additional 84 shares during the period. Finally, Kieckhefer Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $76,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.42, for a total value of $234,331.14. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 26,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,516,745.58. The trade was a 4.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,471,620.22. This represents a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 122,887 shares of company stock valued at $22,470,464. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Pivotal Research boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.13.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $197.07 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The company has a market capitalization of $2.41 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.14, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $131.55 and a 52-week high of $203.84. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $188.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $175.13.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released 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 company had revenue of $88.27 billion during 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%. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.55 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.