Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Holdings Raised by J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 41.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 105,906 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 30,904 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 0.5% of J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest holding. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $16,377,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 9.8% during the fourth 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 during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $2,483,898,000 after buying an additional 15,968,487 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Alphabet by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,178,470,000 after acquiring an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Alphabet by 16.2% during 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 last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 249,409 shares of company stock valued at $43,523,710. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $195.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on Alphabet from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Alphabet from $208.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $211.32.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $193.18 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $2.34 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $175.77 and a 200 day simple moving average of $172.79. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 8.95%.

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.