Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Bought by Financial Connections Group Inc.

Financial Connections Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 48.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,074 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 999 shares during the period. Financial Connections Group Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $475,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. iA Global Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.7% in the 1st quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 834,830 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $129,098,000 after purchasing an additional 52,115 shares during the last quarter. LCM Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. LCM Capital Management Inc now owns 21,580 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,337,000 after purchasing an additional 603 shares during the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 11,791 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,823,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. Syntegra Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.7% in the 1st quarter. Syntegra Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 5,114 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $791,000 after purchasing an additional 275 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Farrow Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth about $2,070,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $201.00 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $181.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $172.81. The stock has a market cap of $2.43 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $96,428,000 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.60 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 8.95%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. BNP Paribas lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. KeyCorp increased their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Alphabet from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on Alphabet from $192.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Ten 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $211.53.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 243,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,213,984. The trade was a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total value of $5,801,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,559,892 shares of the company’s stock, 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 ninety days, insiders sold 274,219 shares of company stock valued at $49,674,273. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.