Capital Advantage Inc. Invests $742,000 in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Capital Advantage Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 3,920 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $742,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,283,594 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,871,384,000 after purchasing an additional 337,031 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $10,559,240,000 after acquiring an additional 4,567,275 shares in the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 100,467 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $19,018,000 after buying an additional 4,377 shares in the last quarter. Boltwood Capital Management grew its stake in Alphabet by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Boltwood Capital Management now owns 23,593 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $4,466,000 after purchasing an additional 886 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Market Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital Market Strategies LLC now owns 11,096 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,101,000 after purchasing an additional 219 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Truist Financial lowered their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. DA Davidson cut their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Ten 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL traded up $2.90 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $154.28. The company's stock had a trading volume of 57,353,125 shares, compared to its average volume of 28,714,286. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $159.54 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $175.25. The company has a market cap of $1.87 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.17, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.36%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 2,824 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total transaction of $529,302.32. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,815,948.32. This trade represents a 15.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of Alphabet 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,111 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,997,521.61. The trade was a 29.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 146,824 shares of company stock valued at $25,086,603. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.