Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC Grows Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 7.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 22,222 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,603 shares during the period. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,436,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Alphabet by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $18,672,198,000 after acquiring an additional 7,574,417 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 16.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,635,878,000 after acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position 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 acquiring an additional 10,135,430 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

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 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. This trade represents a 3.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total transaction of $5,801,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. This 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 have sold 182,943 shares of company stock valued at $31,223,348. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on GOOGL. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $175.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. JMP Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “market perform” rating to a “market outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, June 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $189.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.82.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $182.00 on Wednesday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $2.21 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $171.04 and a 200-day moving average of $173.13.

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. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.