West Michigan Advisors LLC Acquires 1,223 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

West Michigan Advisors LLC grew its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 19.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,512 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,223 shares during the period. West Michigan Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,162,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $18,672,198,000 after acquiring an additional 7,574,417 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Alphabet by 16.2% during the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 15.9% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 66,050,135 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,503,291,000 after acquiring an additional 9,042,271 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 33,183,489 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,281,879,000 after acquiring an additional 1,779,031 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total value of $200,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 6,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,383,200. This represents a 12.63% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.23, for a total value of $6,377,475.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,494,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $489,572,657.16. This represents a 1.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 274,219 shares of company stock valued at $49,674,273 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $201.00 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.43 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $181.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $172.81.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. The firm had revenue of $96,428,000 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. On average, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 8.95%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the topic of several analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $192.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $195.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $211.53.

About Alphabet

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.