Elgethun Capital Management Increases Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Elgethun Capital Management lifted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 8,097 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 286 shares during the quarter. Elgethun Capital Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,533,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,283,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,871,384,000 after acquiring an additional 337,031 shares in the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its stake in Alphabet by 22.8% in the 3rd quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 639,077 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $105,991,000 after purchasing an additional 118,857 shares in the last quarter. Sassicaia Capital Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $315,000. Stevens Capital Management LP increased its stake in Alphabet by 287.7% during the 3rd quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP now owns 104,085 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $17,262,000 after purchasing an additional 77,235 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 222,555,548 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $36,910,838,000 after buying an additional 743,369 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on GOOGL. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $205.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Westpark Capital raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, UBS Group set a $190.00 target price on Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $206.51.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.8 %

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $157.14 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a market cap of $1.92 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.52, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $168.52 and a 200-day moving average price of $176.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.51, for a total transaction of $3,281,671.90. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,111 shares in the company, valued at $7,997,521.61. This represents a 29.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. This trade represents a 4.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 118,297 shares of company stock worth $20,804,770 over the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.