AlphaStar Capital Management LLC Acquires 5,691 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

AlphaStar Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 9.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 63,243 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 5,691 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 1.1% of AlphaStar Capital Management LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest position. AlphaStar Capital Management LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $9,780,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter worth $28,000. Elite Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter worth $42,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $49,000. EQ Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter worth $49,000. Finally, Navigoe LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $51,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $175.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $201.68.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total transaction of $5,992,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,527,392 shares in the company, valued at $466,000,536.96. This represents a 1.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.98, for a total transaction of $72,792.00. Following the sale, the director owned 6,013 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,094,245.74. This trade represents a 6.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 215,843 shares of company stock worth $37,288,490 over the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.0%

NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $1.80 on Friday, hitting $185.38. The company's stock had a trading volume of 21,198,761 shares, compared to its average volume of 32,049,617. The company's 50-day moving average is $172.26 and its 200 day moving average is $173.15. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.25 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.66, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict 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 was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 9.36%.

Alphabet Company 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.