Edge Wealth Management LLC Increases Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Edge Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 1.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 185,784 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 2,189 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 5.8% of Edge Wealth Management LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Edge Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $28,730,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Foster Group Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 10.3% during the 1st quarter. Foster Group Inc. now owns 25,578 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $3,955,000 after acquiring an additional 2,387 shares in the last quarter. Fjell Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 38.1% in the 1st quarter. Fjell Capital LLC now owns 14,886 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,302,000 after acquiring an additional 4,106 shares during the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 768.3% during the first quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 215,559 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $33,334,000 after buying an additional 190,733 shares in the last quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 13.6% during the first quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 45,786 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $7,080,000 after buying an additional 5,480 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Breakwater Capital Group grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.4% during the first quarter. Breakwater Capital Group now owns 9,403 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,454,000 after buying an additional 808 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Westpark Capital reissued a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.1%

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $168.21 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $207.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $159.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.38.

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 for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. The trade was a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of Alphabet 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 approximately $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% 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 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.

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