Valley National Advisers Inc. Increases Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Valley National Advisers Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 19,493 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 693 shares during the quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,014,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $3,119,000. Optivise Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,035,000 after purchasing an additional 403 shares during the last quarter. Community Bank N.A. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 46,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,741,000 after purchasing an additional 2,790 shares during the last quarter. Falcon Wealth Planning raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 15.7% in the first quarter. Falcon Wealth Planning now owns 9,898 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,531,000 after purchasing an additional 1,340 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Premier Fund Managers Ltd raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 30.0% in the fourth quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 61,792 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,816,000 after purchasing an additional 14,262 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,575,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 255,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,695,000. The trade was a 3.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 6,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,192,275. The trade was a 8.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 215,643 shares of company stock valued at $36,330,928 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of GOOGL opened at $179.08 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $168.70 and its two-hundred day moving average is $173.87. The firm has a market cap of $2.17 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.96, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. JMP Securities upgraded Alphabet from a “market perform” rating to a “market outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, June 27th. BNP Paribas cut Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $189.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $172.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $199.95.

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.