Aspen Capital Management LLC Acquires New Shares in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Key Points

• Aspen Capital Management LLC has made a new investment of approximately $440,000 in Alphabet Inc., acquiring 2,848 shares of the company in the first quarter.
• Insider trading activity includes Director Kavitark Ram Shriram selling 18,566 shares and CEO Sundar Pichai selling 32,500 shares earlier this month, reflecting a decrease in their ownership.
• Equity analysts have raised their price targets for Alphabet, with several firms now forecasting targets ranging from $220.00 to $235.00 amid an overall "Moderate Buy" rating consensus.

Aspen Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 2,848 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $440,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GOOGL. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 9.8% during the fourth 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. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,483,898,000 after acquiring an additional 15,968,487 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Alphabet by 17.0% in the fourth 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 grew its stake in Alphabet by 16.2% in the fourth 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 during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of research reports. JMP Securities boosted their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. BNP Paribas Exane reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $172.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, June 27th. Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. KeyCorp upped their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $211.39.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.4%

GOOGL stock traded up $0.78 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $196.53. 32,265,287 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 37,021,776. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $177.49 and its 200 day moving average price is $173.11. The stock has a market cap of $2.38 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.95%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at $45,213,984. This represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale 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, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total transaction of $5,801,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. This trade represents a 1.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 249,298 shares of company stock worth $43,505,967 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

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.