North Capital Inc. Buys Shares of 5,812 Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

North Capital Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 5,812 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $899,000. Alphabet comprises 0.8% of North Capital Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,483,898,000 after buying an additional 15,968,487 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Alphabet by 17.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after buying an additional 10,135,430 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after buying an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 6,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,192,275. This trade represents a 8.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.87, for a total transaction of $5,553,275.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,620,196 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $447,712,890.52. This trade represents a 1.23% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 215,643 shares of company stock worth $36,330,928 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.6%

GOOGL stock traded up $1.00 during trading on Thursday, hitting $177.62. 29,191,793 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 31,781,953. The stock has a market cap of $2.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The firm's 50 day moving average is $169.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $173.69.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on GOOGL. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Finally, Wedbush set a $190.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $200.13.

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.