Sierra Capital LLC Has $7.45 Million Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Sierra Capital LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 48,148 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,429 shares during the quarter. Sierra Capital LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,446,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,025,322,000 after acquiring an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $18,672,198,000 after purchasing an additional 7,574,417 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 10,135,430 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $181.56 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.20 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.24, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $207.05. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $170.66 and a 200-day moving average price of $173.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $105,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 6,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total value of $5,801,900.00. Following 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 215,443 shares of company stock worth $36,298,548 over the last ninety days. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating and issued a $203.00 target price (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Citizens Jmp raised Alphabet from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, JMP Securities raised Alphabet from a “market perform” rating to a “market outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, June 27th. 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.61.

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.