Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. Has $5.73 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 4.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 37,028 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 1,857 shares during the quarter. Sigma Investment Counselors Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,726,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOGL. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Navigoe LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $51,000. Elite Financial Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Finally, Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $53,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Wedbush set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $199.61.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.8%

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $181.56 on Tuesday. 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 stock's 50 day moving average is $170.66 and its two-hundred day moving average is $173.07. The company has a market capitalization of $2.20 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.24, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. The trade was a 1.25% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $105,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 6,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,192,275. This represents a 8.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 215,443 shares of company stock worth $36,298,548. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Alphabet 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.

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