Goldstein Advisors LLC Acquires 2,469 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Goldstein Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 23.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 13,194 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 2,469 shares during the quarter. Goldstein Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,040,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Wealth Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 1,582 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $299,000 after buying an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Capital & Planning LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 34.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital & Planning LLC now owns 4,383 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $830,000 after acquiring an additional 1,119 shares during the period. Eagle Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 50,132 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $9,490,000 after acquiring an additional 371 shares during the period. 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 worth $20,886,000 after acquiring an additional 4,110 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $154,716,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on GOOGL. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Susquehanna cut their price target on Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 25th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Citizens Jmp upgraded Alphabet from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $220.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $199.95.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,575,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 255,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $44,695,000. This represents a 3.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 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 $105,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 6,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,192,275. This represents a 8.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 183,143 shares of company stock valued at $30,529,028. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $2.80 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $178.64. The company's stock had a trading volume of 29,091,179 shares, compared to its average volume of 31,445,572. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.17 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $167.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $174.17. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $207.05.

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 analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Alphabet 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.