Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Acquired by Paragon Financial Partners Inc.

Paragon Financial Partners Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 185.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,766 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 2,445 shares during the period. Paragon Financial Partners Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $582,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $39,000. PayPay Securities Corp lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 36.1% during the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $49,000. Finally, Navigoe LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $51,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of research reports. Westpark Capital reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Roth Mkm reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Ten investment 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $199.75.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,837,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 261,966 shares in the company, valued at $45,844,050. This represents a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were 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 owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 195,770 shares of company stock valued at $32,036,638. Insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 3.3%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $173.68 on Friday. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $160.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.34. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $207.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a market cap of $2.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 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.

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