Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC Makes New $975,000 Investment in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 5,150 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $975,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $10,559,240,000 after acquiring an additional 4,567,275 shares during the period. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 23,533 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $4,455,000 after acquiring an additional 207 shares during the period. Wealth Group Ltd. grew its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 78 shares during the period. Capital & Planning LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 34.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital & Planning LLC now owns 4,383 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $830,000 after acquiring an additional 1,119 shares during the period. Finally, Guinness Asset Management LTD grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% in the 4th quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 234,481 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $44,392,000 after buying an additional 21,158 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 31st. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Wedbush set a $190.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. JMP Securities reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $200.00 price target (down previously from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.5%

NASDAQ:GOOGL traded down $0.90 on Thursday, hitting $171.46. 19,518,584 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 29,798,717. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $159.04 and a 200-day moving average price of $174.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $207.05. The company has a market cap of $2.08 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,374 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total value of $238,347.78. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,606,213.28. This represents a 8.38% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 164,654 shares of company stock valued at $26,793,380. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.