Wealth Advisory Solutions LLC Buys 594 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Wealth Advisory Solutions LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 7.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,506 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 594 shares during the quarter. Wealth Advisory Solutions LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,315,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,410 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $991,000 after purchasing an additional 399 shares in the last quarter. OMC Financial Services LTD lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. OMC Financial Services LTD now owns 33,060 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,112,000 after buying an additional 637 shares during the period. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 35,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,462,000 after purchasing an additional 758 shares during the period. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 32.4% in the 1st quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 3,153 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $490,000 after purchasing an additional 772 shares during the period. Finally, Dogwood Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 7.7% in the 1st quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,020 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $622,000 after purchasing an additional 288 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $44,695,000. The trade was a 3.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal 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 shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total transaction of $5,801,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at $456,991,919.84. The trade was a 1.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 182,943 shares of company stock valued at $31,223,348. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, May 8th. BNP Paribas cut Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, UBS Group set a $195.00 target price on Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.82.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.2%

Alphabet stock opened at $182.00 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $171.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $173.13. The company has a market capitalization of $2.21 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.00. 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 fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. Research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. 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.