Flagship Private Wealth LLC Acquires New Shares in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Flagship Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 3,700 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $572,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $3,119,000. Optivise Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,035,000 after buying an additional 403 shares during the last quarter. Community Bank N.A. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 46,173 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $8,741,000 after buying an additional 2,790 shares during the last quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 30.0% in the fourth quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 61,792 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $11,816,000 after buying an additional 14,262 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Absolute Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 14.0% in the fourth quarter. Absolute Capital Management LLC now owns 2,096 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $401,000 after buying an additional 258 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on GOOGL shares. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Bank of America boosted their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and set a $178.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten investment 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 has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $199.75.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the 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 sale, the director now directly owns 261,966 shares in the company, valued at $45,844,050. This represents a 3.85% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 in the company, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 195,770 shares of company stock worth $32,036,638 in the last three months. Insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 3.3%

GOOGL stock opened at $173.68 on Monday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The business's 50 day moving average is $160.14 and its 200-day moving average is $174.38. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

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.

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