BankPlus Trust Department Purchases 445 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

BankPlus Trust Department grew its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 12.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,012 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 445 shares during the period. BankPlus Trust Department’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $620,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co raised its stake in Alphabet by 0.3% in the first quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co now owns 27,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,187,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $3,119,000. Cypress Capital LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 4.1% in the first quarter. Cypress Capital LLC now owns 14,310 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,213,000 after buying an additional 563 shares in the last quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,035,000 after purchasing an additional 403 shares during the period. Finally, Community Bank N.A. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 46,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,741,000 after purchasing an additional 2,790 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.8%

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $185.06 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a market cap of $2.25 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $172.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $173.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GOOGL. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $175.00 to $177.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $195.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. BNP Paribas cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Wedbush set a $190.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $201.68.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,837,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 261,966 shares in the company, valued at $45,844,050. This represents a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 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 transaction of $105,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 6,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,192,275. The trade was a 8.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 215,843 shares of company stock worth $37,288,490. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet 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.