Canton Hathaway LLC Raises Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Canton Hathaway LLC grew its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 131.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,631 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 8,320 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 0.5% of Canton Hathaway LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Canton Hathaway LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,263,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC increased 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 purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% during the fourth 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 buying an additional 7,574,417 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $13,635,878,000 after buying an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Alphabet by 17.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $13,178,470,000 after buying an additional 10,135,430 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. UBS Group set a $195.00 price target on Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $178.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $189.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $200.17.

Insider Activity

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 value of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at $2,377,014.99. This trade represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.68, for a total value of $5,742,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,555,196 shares in the company, valued at $451,452,029.28. This trade represents a 1.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 228,070 shares of company stock valued at $37,745,632. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.3%

Shares of GOOGL stock traded up $3.91 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $170.68. The stock had a trading volume of 34,362,685 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,801,769. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $165.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $174.61. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $207.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.07 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion for 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 firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.