Absher Wealth Management LLC Purchases 1,539 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Absher Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 1.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 126,265 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 1,539 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 2.6% of Absher Wealth Management LLC's holdings, making the stock its 26th largest position. Absher Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $19,526,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 10.8% during the 1st quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 3,307 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $511,000 after purchasing an additional 321 shares during the last quarter. Rappaport Reiches Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.8% in the first quarter. Rappaport Reiches Capital Management LLC now owns 7,368 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,139,000 after purchasing an additional 271 shares during the period. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at $100,000. Intact Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 153,000 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $23,660,000 after acquiring an additional 3,500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First PREMIER Bank grew its position in Alphabet by 4.8% during the 1st quarter. First PREMIER Bank now owns 1,735 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $267,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL stock traded up $3.91 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $170.68. The company had a trading volume of 34,362,685 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,801,769. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $165.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $174.61. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.07 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.01.

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 for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on GOOGL. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Tigress Financial increased their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Wedbush set a $190.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $200.17.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. The trade was a 1.18% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 228,070 shares of company stock valued at $37,745,632 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

About Alphabet

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.