Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC Takes $61,000 Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 320,864 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $61,000.

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

Alphabet Price Performance

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

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during 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 quarter last year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. DZ Bank downgraded Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $198.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Susquehanna decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $199.75.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 2,824 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total transaction of $529,302.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,815,948.32. The trade was a 15.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 146,824 shares of company stock valued at $25,086,603 in the last three months. Company 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.