Hartmann Taylor Wealth Management LLC Buys New Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Hartmann Taylor Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 2,577 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $399,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $47,025,322,000 after buying an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,483,898,000 after acquiring an additional 15,968,487 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $13,635,878,000 after acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Wedbush set a $190.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $178.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. UBS Group set a $195.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 31st. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $199.95.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.87, for a total value of $5,553,275.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,620,196 shares in the company, valued at approximately $447,712,890.52. This trade represents a 1.23% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director directly owned 6,813 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,192,275. This trade represents a 8.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 183,143 shares of company stock worth $30,529,028 over the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of Alphabet stock traded up $0.44 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $179.08. 21,689,729 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 31,462,867. The firm has a market cap of $2.17 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.96, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The stock's fifty day moving average is $167.96 and its 200 day moving average is $174.20.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a $0.21 dividend. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.