Fortem Financial Group LLC Acquires 1,405 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Fortem Financial Group LLC raised its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 7.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 20,520 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 1,405 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 1.2% of Fortem Financial Group LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Fortem Financial Group LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,173,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,483,898,000 after purchasing an additional 15,968,487 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after purchasing an additional 10,135,430 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Alphabet by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Truist Financial reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $178.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $201.68.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,837,500.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 261,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,844,050. This represents a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total value of $5,992,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,527,392 shares of the company's stock, valued at $466,000,536.96. This represents a 1.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 215,843 shares of company stock worth $37,288,490 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock traded up $1.48 during trading on Friday, hitting $185.06. 33,864,714 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 32,179,845. The stock's fifty day moving average is $172.90 and its 200 day moving average is $173.01. The stock has a market cap of $2.25 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

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.