Archford Capital Strategies LLC Boosts Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Archford Capital Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 73.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 60,123 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 25,382 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 1.4% of Archford Capital Strategies LLC's holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Archford Capital Strategies LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $9,297,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $3,119,000. Optivise Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,035,000 after acquiring an additional 403 shares in the last quarter. Community Bank N.A. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 46,173 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $8,741,000 after acquiring an additional 2,790 shares during the last quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd lifted its stake in Alphabet by 30.0% in the 4th quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 61,792 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $11,816,000 after purchasing an additional 14,262 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Absolute Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 14.0% during the 4th quarter. Absolute Capital Management LLC now owns 2,096 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $401,000 after purchasing an additional 258 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Truist Financial cut their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a "neutral" rating and set a $171.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, June 25th. Citizens Jmp raised Alphabet from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $220.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Roth Mkm reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Ten research 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 company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $199.95.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. This trade represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 216,195 shares of company stock valued at $35,764,898 over the last quarter. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of GOOGL traded down $1.41 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $177.12. 11,447,146 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 31,177,392. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $166.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $174.26. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a market cap of $2.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.79, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.01. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The company 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 quarter last year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 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.