Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Purchased by Blue Square Asset Management LLC

Blue Square Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 15.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 27,552 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 3,643 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 2.3% of Blue Square Asset Management LLC's holdings, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Blue Square Asset Management LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,261,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. von Borstel & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the first quarter worth $28,000. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the first quarter worth $39,000. Elite Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $42,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $49,000. Finally, EQ Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $49,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on GOOGL. Truist Financial reissued a "buy" rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $186.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday. JMP Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a "market perform" rating to a "market outperform" rating and set a $220.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Roth Capital reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $205.00 price objective (up previously from $180.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $201.68.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,527,392 shares of the company's stock, valued at $466,000,536.96. The trade was a 1.27% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 400 shares of Alphabet 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 directly owned 6,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,094,245.74. This trade represents a 6.24% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 215,843 shares of company stock valued at $37,288,490 in the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL traded up $1.48 during trading on Friday, reaching $185.06. 33,864,714 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 32,179,845. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.25 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.00. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $172.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $173.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's 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.