Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Position Boosted by CapWealth Advisors LLC

CapWealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 8.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 57,093 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,615 shares during the period. CapWealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $8,829,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Stratos Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 15.3% during the 1st quarter. Stratos Investment Management LLC now owns 144,250 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,307,000 after purchasing an additional 19,189 shares in the last quarter. Blackhawk Capital Partners LLC. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.4% during the 1st quarter. Blackhawk Capital Partners LLC. now owns 31,244 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,832,000 after purchasing an additional 2,434 shares in the last quarter. May Hill Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.3% during the 1st quarter. May Hill Capital LLC now owns 7,256 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,122,000 after purchasing an additional 430 shares in the last quarter. Sierra Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. Sierra Capital LLC now owns 48,148 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,446,000 after purchasing an additional 1,429 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NTV Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. NTV Asset Management LLC now owns 43,899 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,789,000 after purchasing an additional 405 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the subject of several research reports. Roth Capital restated a “buy” rating and set a $205.00 price objective (up previously from $180.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 price objective (down from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $199.61.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total value of $5,801,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. This trade represents a 1.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,837,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 261,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,844,050. The trade was a 3.85% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 215,443 shares of company stock worth $36,298,548 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $181.56 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.20 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.24, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $170.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $173.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced 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. 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 the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. 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%.

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.