Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. Increases Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 477.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 64,728 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 53,513 shares during the quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $10,009,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Macroview Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 1,293 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $245,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 2,381 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $457,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 7,527 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,425,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Burt Wealth Advisors increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Burt Wealth Advisors now owns 5,307 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,005,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Perritt Capital Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10.4% during the fourth quarter. Perritt Capital Management Inc now owns 618 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $117,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.1%

Alphabet stock traded up $0.16 during trading on Thursday, hitting $168.21. The company had a trading volume of 34,550,448 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,112,310. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $159.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.43. The stock has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.90, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Alphabet's payout ratio is 9.36%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. DA Davidson cut their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. DZ Bank cut shares of Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $198.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective 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. Finally, Roth Mkm reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $199.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.71, for a total transaction of $5,483,075.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,587,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $436,570,192.16. The trade was a 1.24% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 195,770 shares of company stock worth $32,036,638 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 11.64% 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.