Park Avenue Securities LLC Buys 13,806 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Park Avenue Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 6.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 245,725 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 13,806 shares during the quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $37,999,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Macroview Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 1,293 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $245,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 2,381 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $457,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 7,527 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,425,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Burt Wealth Advisors raised its position in Alphabet by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Burt Wealth Advisors now owns 5,307 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,005,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Perritt Capital Management Inc raised its position in Alphabet by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. Perritt Capital Management Inc now owns 618 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $117,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL traded up $3.81 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $179.90. The stock had a trading volume of 23,046,734 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,181,786. The business's 50 day moving average price is $160.52 and its 200 day moving average price is $174.46. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The company has a market cap of $2.18 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.71, for a total transaction of $5,483,075.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,587,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $436,570,192.16. The trade was a 1.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 195,770 shares of company stock worth $32,036,638 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on GOOGL. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $189.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Susquehanna dropped their price target on Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $199.75.

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.