Main Street Research LLC Raises Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Main Street Research LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 287,165 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,127 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 2.9% of Main Street Research LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Main Street Research LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $44,407,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,483,898,000 after purchasing an additional 15,968,487 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Alphabet by 17.0% during the 4th 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. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $13,635,878,000 after acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.98, for a total value of $72,792.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 6,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,094,245.74. This represents a 6.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 183,343 shares of company stock worth $31,296,140 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $182.97 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $171.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $173.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.22 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.40, a PEG ratio of 1.28 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 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion for 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 posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on GOOGL. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $186.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $178.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating and set a $203.00 price objective (up from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and set a $189.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.86.

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.