MFA Wealth Advisors LLC Increases Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

MFA Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 43.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 30,220 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 9,124 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 1.2% of MFA Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 21st biggest holding. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,673,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. PayPay Securities Corp increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 36.1% in the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $49,000. Navigoe LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $51,000. Finally, Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $53,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $189.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. DA Davidson dropped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Westpark Capital reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Trading Down 3.9%

Shares of GOOGL traded down $6.68 during midday trading 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 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 18.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The stock's 50 day moving average is $164.77 and its 200 day moving average is $174.72.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share 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 the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the firm'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 in the company, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. This trade represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total transaction of $1,962,705.76. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at $8,181,333.08. This represents a 19.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 228,070 shares of company stock worth $37,745,632 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

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.