D.A. Davidson & CO. Raises Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

D.A. Davidson & CO. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 1.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 437,910 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 7,793 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $67,718,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Wealth Group Ltd. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 1,582 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $299,000 after buying an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 50,132 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $9,490,000 after buying an additional 371 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $20,886,000 after buying an additional 4,110 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,826,000 after buying an additional 506 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Highview Capital Management LLC DE boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE now owns 29,100 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $5,509,000 after buying an additional 1,003 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $2.57 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $180.19. The company's stock had a trading volume of 34,243,157 shares, compared to its average volume of 31,878,935. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.19 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The company's 50-day moving average is $170.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $173.46.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $189.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Westpark Capital reissued a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. JMP Securities raised Alphabet from a "market perform" rating to a "market outperform" rating and set a $220.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. 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's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $199.61.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. The trade was a 1.25% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 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 $1,575,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 255,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $44,695,000. This trade represents a 3.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 215,643 shares of company stock worth $36,330,928. Corporate 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.