Private Advisor Group LLC Boosts Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Key Points

• Private Advisor Group LLC increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. by 1.9% during Q1, holding 420,356 shares valued at approximately $65 million.
• Alphabet reported $2.81 EPS for Q1, exceeding analysts' estimates of $2.02, with a revenue of $76.49 billion compared to expectations of $89.30 billion.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21, with an annualized yield of 0.43%, to be paid on September 15th to shareholders of record on September 8th.

Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 1.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 420,356 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 7,859 shares during the quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $65,004,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. von Borstel & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the first quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Elite Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the first quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Finally, EQ Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the first quarter valued at approximately $49,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of research reports. JMP Securities upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday. Westpark Capital upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $211.32.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $1.01 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $193.18. The stock had a trading volume of 39,738,342 shares, compared to its average volume of 41,427,228. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The company has a market capitalization of $2.34 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $175.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $172.93. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.95%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 243,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at $45,213,984. The trade was a 7.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total value of $5,801,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 249,409 shares of company stock valued at $43,523,710. 11.64% of the stock is currently 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.