Silphium Asset Management Ltd Has $3.39 Million Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Silphium Asset Management Ltd grew its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 20.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 21,950 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 3,696 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 2.7% of Silphium Asset Management Ltd's portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest position. Silphium Asset Management Ltd's holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,394,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $49,000. Navigoe LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $51,000. Elite Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter worth about $42,000. Finally, Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $53,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Susquehanna decreased their target price on Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $171.00 to $196.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Roth Capital restated a "buy" rating and set a $205.00 price target (up previously from $180.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, JMP Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a "market perform" rating to a "market outperform" rating and set a $220.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $201.41.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of GOOGL stock traded up $0.67 on Thursday, hitting $183.64. The stock had a trading volume of 20,732,495 shares, compared to its average volume of 32,004,194. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.23 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.49, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.00. 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 company has a fifty day moving average price of $171.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $173.20.

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 the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company'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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,559,892 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. This represents 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 Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,837,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 261,966 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,844,050. The trade was a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 183,343 shares of company stock valued at $31,296,140. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

About Alphabet

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.