Waverly Advisors LLC Purchases 20,728 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Waverly Advisors LLC raised its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 13.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 177,779 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 20,728 shares during the period. Waverly Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $33,654,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 518.8% during the fourth quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $39,000. PayPay Securities Corp lifted its stake in Alphabet by 36.1% in the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Anderson Financial Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $49,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities lowered their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $189.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Mizuho lowered their price target on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Westpark Capital reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Wedbush set a $190.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $199.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,374 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total value of $238,347.78. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at $2,606,213.28. This trade represents a 8.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total transaction of $5,066,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,652,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $413,555,306.40. This trade represents a 1.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 129,744 shares of company stock worth $20,968,366 over the last three months. Insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $166.54 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.69, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The stock's fifty day moving average is $158.20 and its 200 day moving average is $175.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week 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.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

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.

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