LifeWealth Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 52.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 10,123 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 3,462 shares during the period. LifeWealth Investments LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,565,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Dunhill Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 7.2% in the first quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 8,131 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,257,000 after purchasing an additional 544 shares in the last quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% during the first quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC now owns 10,777 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,667,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. PUREfi Wealth LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 37.5% during the first quarter. PUREfi Wealth LLC now owns 3,512 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $543,000 after buying an additional 957 shares during the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 287.0% during the first quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 229,674 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $35,951,000 after buying an additional 170,331 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ayalon Insurance Comp Ltd. increased its position in Alphabet by 44.8% during the first quarter. Ayalon Insurance Comp Ltd. now owns 21,545 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $3,332,000 after buying an additional 6,666 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Several brokerages have recently issued reports on GOOGL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $189.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Ten 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 company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $199.75.
Check Out Our Latest Report on GOOGL
Alphabet Trading Down 3.9%
Shares of GOOGL stock traded down $6.68 on Friday, hitting $166.64. The stock had a trading volume of 75,073,701 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,587,197. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 18.58, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.01. 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 company has a fifty day moving average price of $164.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $174.72.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations 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 firm posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share 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 given a $0.21 dividend. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 9.36%.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total transaction of $5,066,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,652,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $413,555,306.40. The trade was a 1.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 228,070 shares of company stock valued at $37,745,632 in the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
About Alphabet
(
Free Report)
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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