Cohen Investment Advisors LLC Has $76,000 Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Cohen Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 1,563.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 488,942 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 459,555 shares during the period. Cohen Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $76,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,483,898,000 after purchasing an additional 15,968,487 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on GOOGL. Susquehanna decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Citizens Jmp upgraded Alphabet from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $220.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, June 27th. JMP Securities upgraded Alphabet from a "market perform" rating to a "market outperform" rating and set a $220.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $189.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $199.95.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.2%

GOOGL traded up $0.44 on Friday, hitting $179.08. 21,689,729 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 31,547,766. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05. The company has a market cap of $2.17 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.96, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77. The stock's fifty day moving average is $168.70 and its 200-day moving average is $173.97.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released 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. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's payout ratio is 9.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director owned 261,966 shares of the company's stock, valued at $45,844,050. The trade was a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 6,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,192,275. This trade represents a 8.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 215,643 shares of company stock valued at $36,330,928 over the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Company 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.