Wright Investors Service Inc. Has $4.65 Million Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Wright Investors Service Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 7.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 30,075 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 1,972 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 1.5% of Wright Investors Service Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Wright Investors Service Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,651,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. increased its position in Alphabet by 518.8% in 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 period. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $39,000. PayPay Securities Corp increased its position in Alphabet by 36.1% in the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. Finally, Anderson Financial Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $49,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on GOOGL. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Tigress Financial raised their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. DA Davidson decreased their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, DZ Bank cut shares of Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $198.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.6%

Shares of GOOGL traded down $2.71 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $169.03. 37,013,979 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 29,982,536. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $207.05. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $159.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $174.56. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company has a market cap of $2.05 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.00, 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, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total value of $1,962,705.76. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at $8,181,333.08. This trade represents a 19.35% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 163,159 shares of company stock valued at $26,534,426 in the last three months. 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.