Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV Acquires 324 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 43,506 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 324 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 1.5% of Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV’s holdings, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,728,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $105,000.00. Following the completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total transaction of $5,801,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,559,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. This trade represents a 1.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 215,643 shares of company stock worth $36,330,928. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.2%

GOOGL opened at $179.08 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $168.70 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $173.77. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.17 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $203.00 target price (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. BNP Paribas cut Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Wedbush set a $190.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. BNP Paribas Exane reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $172.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Mizuho cut their price objective on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.95.

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.