Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stake Boosted by Arthur M. Cohen & Associates LLC

Arthur M. Cohen & Associates LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.8% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 9,936 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the quarter. Arthur M. Cohen & Associates LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,537,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Macroview Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 1,293 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $245,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 2,381 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $457,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 7,527 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,425,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Burt Wealth Advisors raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Burt Wealth Advisors now owns 5,307 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,005,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. Finally, Perritt Capital Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. Perritt Capital Management Inc now owns 618 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $117,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 195,770 shares of company stock worth $32,036,638 in the last ninety days. 11.64% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of GOOGL opened at $168.05 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.88, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $159.54 and a 200-day moving average price of $174.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp boosted their price target 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. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $178.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $199.75.

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.