Betterment LLC Acquires 2,902 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Betterment LLC increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. by 151.3%, owning 4,820 shares worth around $745,000 after acquiring an additional 2,902 shares in the first quarter.
• Alphabet recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21, translating to an annualized dividend yield of 0.4%, with the ex-dividend date set for September 8th.
• Several analysts have upgraded their price targets for Alphabet, with JPMorgan Chase raising it from $200.00 to $232.00, maintaining a rating of "overweight."

Betterment LLC lifted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 151.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,820 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 2,902 shares during the period. Betterment LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $745,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Mystic Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 6.7% in the first quarter. Mystic Asset Management Inc. now owns 28,454 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $4,400,000 after purchasing an additional 1,791 shares during the period. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the first quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co now owns 27,075 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $4,187,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,119,000. Cypress Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.1% during the first quarter. Cypress Capital LLC now owns 14,310 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,213,000 after buying an additional 563 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Falcon Wealth Planning grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 15.7% during the first quarter. Falcon Wealth Planning now owns 9,898 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,531,000 after buying an additional 1,340 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,000 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $200,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 6,916 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,383,200. The trade was a 12.63% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total transaction of $5,801,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares of the company's stock, valued at $456,991,919.84. The trade was a 1.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 254,710 shares of company stock valued at $47,225,230. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $203.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $218.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $196.00 to $201.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $211.79.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock traded down $1.56 on Tuesday, hitting $211.35. 44,817,750 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 36,246,723. The firm has a market cap of $2.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.51, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $214.65. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $191.39 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $174.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.60 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.95%.

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.