Daymark Wealth Partners LLC Boosts Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Daymark Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 1.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 295,741 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 4,744 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 1.6% of Daymark Wealth Partners LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest holding. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $45,733,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% in 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 acquiring an additional 7,574,417 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% in the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position 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 valued at $13,178,470,000 after acquiring an additional 10,135,430 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total transaction of $1,962,705.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,181,333.08. This trade represents a 19.35% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 195,770 shares of company stock valued at $32,036,638 in the last ninety days. 11.64% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on GOOGL. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $178.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $159.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Susquehanna cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock traded up $2.51 on Tuesday, reaching $178.60. The stock had a trading volume of 60,060,380 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,325,128. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The stock has a market cap of $2.17 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $160.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $174.46.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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