St. Louis Financial Planners Asset Management LLC Has $2.79 Million Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

St. Louis Financial Planners Asset Management LLC raised its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 29.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 18,044 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 4,106 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 2.1% of St. Louis Financial Planners Asset Management LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest holding. St. Louis Financial Planners Asset Management LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,790,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC lifted 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 worth $47,025,322,000 after buying an additional 22,100,902 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 worth $2,483,898,000 after buying an additional 15,968,487 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $13,178,470,000 after buying an additional 10,135,430 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $13,635,878,000 after buying an additional 10,037,685 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Wedbush set a $190.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $199.75.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the director now directly owns 6,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,192,275. This trade represents a 8.09% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 164,533 shares of company stock worth $26,772,774 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL traded down $2.13 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $169.73. The company had a trading volume of 52,598,920 shares, compared to its average volume of 29,949,599. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $159.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $174.56. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The company has a market capitalization of $2.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.36%.

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.