Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC Grows Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC increased its shares in Alphabet Inc. by 6.0%, holding a total of 96,640 shares after acquiring an additional 5,504 shares during the first quarter.
• Alphabet recently reported a quarterly earnings per share of $2.31, exceeding analysts' expectations of $2.15, with a revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, translating to an annual yield of 0.4%, with the ex-dividend date set for September 8th.

Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 6.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 96,640 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 5,504 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 2.1% of Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $14,944,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $4,317,606,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in 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. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 2.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after acquiring an additional 14,307,345 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in Alphabet by 307.6% during the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,302,644 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,593,201,000 after acquiring an additional 7,774,811 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,375,509,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL stock traded up $0.43 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $240.80. 26,758,216 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 35,407,372. The firm has a market cap of $2.91 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.64, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $201.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $177.51. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $242.25.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. On average, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.95%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $240.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Wedbush upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. BNP Paribas Exane restated a "neutral" rating and set a $172.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $195.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have assigned a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $221.44.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $492,281,408.64. This trade represents a 1.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total transaction of $4,637,754.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,371,905.30. This represents a 35.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 254,710 shares of company stock valued at $49,208,380. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.