Wealth Quarterback LLC Purchases 4,205 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Key Points

• Wealth Quarterback LLC increased its position in Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) by 108%, owning 8,099 shares valued at $1,252,000 as of the latest quarter.
• Analysts have raised their price targets for Alphabet, with Stifel Nicolaus and Tigress Financial setting new targets of $218 and $240, respectively, while maintaining positive ratings.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, reflecting an annualized dividend yield of 0.44%.

Wealth Quarterback LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 108.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,099 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 4,205 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 0.7% of Wealth Quarterback LLC's holdings, making the stock its 29th largest holding. Wealth Quarterback LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,252,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Mystic Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.7% in the 1st quarter. Mystic Asset Management Inc. now owns 28,454 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $4,400,000 after acquiring an additional 1,791 shares in the last quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the first quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co now owns 27,075 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $4,187,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,119,000. Cypress Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.1% in the first quarter. Cypress Capital LLC now owns 14,310 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,213,000 after buying an additional 563 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Optivise Advisory Services LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,035,000 after purchasing an additional 403 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $192.00 to $202.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $211.39.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL traded down $4.49 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $192.04. The stock had a trading volume of 18,906,998 shares, compared to its average volume of 36,930,727. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $177.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $173.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.33 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $207.05.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.95%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the sale, the director directly owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total transaction 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 $456,991,919.84. This represents a 1.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 249,298 shares of company stock valued at $43,505,967. 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.