George Kaiser Family Foundation Buys New Shares in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• The George Kaiser Family Foundation acquired 1,708 shares of Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) worth approximately $264,000 in the first quarter.
• Wall Street analysts have raised their price targets for Alphabet, with Oppenheimer setting a new target of $200 and Morgan Stanley increasing theirs to $205, reflecting a bullish sentiment towards the stock.
• Insider trading activity includes significant sales by CEO Sundar Pichai and Director Kavitark Ram Shriram, who sold large quantities of their shares earlier this month.

George Kaiser Family Foundation acquired a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 1,708 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $264,000.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 242.9% in the first quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 168 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter valued at about $28,000. IMA Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter valued at about $28,000. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 85.7% in the first quarter. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC now owns 195 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter valued at about $39,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. BNP Paribas Exane reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $172.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Wedbush lifted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $211.53.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 15,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $2,786,400.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 240,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $44,656,704. This represents a 5.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.92, for a total value of $6,497,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,462,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $492,281,408.64. This represents a 1.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 254,719 shares of company stock valued at $47,223,172 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $199.75 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.42 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.27, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $186.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $173.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $96,428,000 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.95%.

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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