SFE Investment Counsel Acquires 7,246 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

SFE Investment Counsel raised its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 21.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 41,756 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 7,246 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 1.3% of SFE Investment Counsel's portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest position. SFE Investment Counsel's holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,524,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of GOOG. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $5,166,070,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 18,562.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,237,733,000 after purchasing an additional 14,246,573 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $10,873,751,000 after purchasing an additional 7,917,625 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $17,376,706,000 after purchasing an additional 5,758,244 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 14.5% in the 4th quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 33,504,543 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $6,380,605,000 after buying an additional 4,247,379 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the topic of several recent research reports. UBS Group boosted their target price on Alphabet from $186.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Cowen restated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Needham & Company LLC cut Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "cautious" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Citizens Jmp upgraded Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Citigroup restated a "sell" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $215.19.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 243,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at $45,213,984. This represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total transaction of $5,801,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,559,892 shares of the company's stock, valued at $456,991,919.84. This represents a 1.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 249,409 shares of company stock worth $43,523,710 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.9%

GOOG traded up $1.69 during trading on Thursday, reaching $193.20. The company had a trading volume of 45,163,229 shares, compared to its average volume of 26,053,214. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $208.70. The business's fifty day moving average price is $176.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $174.69. The company has a market cap of $2.34 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.58, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 35.22%. The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.67 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

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.