Obermeyer Wealth Partners Grows Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Obermeyer Wealth Partners increased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 10.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 42,624 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 4,173 shares during the quarter. Obermeyer Wealth Partners' holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,591,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.7% during the first quarter. Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC now owns 427,793 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $66,154,000 after buying an additional 2,788 shares in the last quarter. Integrity Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter valued at about $496,000. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.4% in the first quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 799,135 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $123,578,000 after buying an additional 26,187 shares during the last quarter. Kingsman Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter valued at about $393,000. Finally, Horizon Investment Services LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.6% in the first quarter. Horizon Investment Services LLC now owns 48,516 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $7,503,000 after buying an additional 781 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total value of $5,801,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at $456,991,919.84. This trade represents a 1.25% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 249,399 shares of company stock worth $43,525,794 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.6%

GOOGL stock traded down $3.09 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $188.81. 17,717,821 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 37,048,895. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $177.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $173.12. The company has a market cap of $2.29 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 8.95%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GOOGL. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $184.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, BNP Paribas cut shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $211.39.

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.