Westside Investment Management Inc. Purchases 1,362 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Westside Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 44,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,362 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 1.5% of Westside Investment Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest holding. Westside Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,970,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after buying an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,483,898,000 after buying an additional 15,968,487 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Alphabet by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after buying an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in Alphabet by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after buying an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on GOOGL shares. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Wedbush set a $190.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Citizens Jmp raised Alphabet from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.95.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $179.08 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.17 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $168.70 and a 200-day moving average price of $173.87. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $207.05.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,575,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 255,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,695,000. This trade represents a 3.40% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 6,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,192,275. This represents a 8.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 215,643 shares of company stock worth $36,330,928. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by 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.