American Trust Boosts Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

American Trust increased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 16.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 28,332 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 3,903 shares during the period. American Trust's holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,363,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ascent Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 119,644 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $22,649,000 after acquiring an additional 7,281 shares during the last quarter. Putney Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $7,790,000. Vermillion Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $223,000. Sunbeam Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,068,000. Finally, Amiral Gestion purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $26,687,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and issued a $178.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $199.75.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at $2,377,014.99. The trade was a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 164,654 shares of company stock valued at $26,793,380 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock traded down $0.78 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $171.59. The company had a trading volume of 18,095,165 shares, compared to its average volume of 35,473,469. The company has a market capitalization of $2.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month 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 company has a 50-day moving average price of $159.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $174.73.

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. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. On average, research 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 will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.