Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC Has $3.54 Million Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC grew its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 6.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,864 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 1,355 shares during the period. Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,536,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $47,025,322,000 after buying an additional 22,100,902 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $18,672,198,000 after acquiring an additional 7,574,417 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $13,635,878,000 after acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in 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. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. JMP Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a "market perform" rating to a "market outperform" rating and set a $220.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $178.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Mizuho reduced their target price on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $201.68.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owned 2,527,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $466,000,536.96. This trade represents a 1.27% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,837,500.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 261,966 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,844,050. This represents a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 215,843 shares of company stock valued at $37,288,490. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock traded up $1.48 on Friday, hitting $185.06. The company's stock had a trading volume of 33,864,714 shares, compared to its average volume of 32,179,845. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $172.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $173.12. The firm has a market cap 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. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $207.05. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current 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 given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was 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 0.45%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

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.