Naples Global Advisors LLC Boosts Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Naples Global Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 11.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 39,661 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,964 shares during the period. Naples Global Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,133,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,119,000. Optivise Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,035,000 after acquiring an additional 403 shares in the last quarter. Community Bank N.A. lifted its position in Alphabet by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 46,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,741,000 after acquiring an additional 2,790 shares during the last quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd boosted its stake in Alphabet by 30.0% in the fourth quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 61,792 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,816,000 after acquiring an additional 14,262 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Absolute Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 14.0% in the fourth quarter. Absolute Capital Management LLC now owns 2,096 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $401,000 after purchasing an additional 258 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wedbush set a $190.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 price target (down previously from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Truist Financial cut their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, DZ Bank cut Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price target for the company. in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock 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 company has a market capitalization 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 stock has a fifty day moving average of $159.54 and a two-hundred day moving average 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 data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total transaction of $1,962,705.76. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. This represents a 19.35% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 195,770 shares of company stock valued at $32,036,638 over the last 90 days. 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.