Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Purchased by Howard Financial Services LTD.

Howard Financial Services LTD. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 7.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,080 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 489 shares during the quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,069,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. W Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. W Advisors LLC now owns 4,440 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $581,000 after buying an additional 225 shares during the last quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 8.8% during the 3rd quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 17,741 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,322,000 after buying an additional 1,440 shares during the last quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC now owns 8,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,070,000 after buying an additional 751 shares during the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 2,720,789 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $356,042,000 after buying an additional 10,237 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Towercrest Capital Management lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Towercrest Capital Management now owns 7,492 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $980,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Argus raised their price target on Alphabet from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Alphabet from $155.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on Alphabet from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $196.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on Alphabet from $150.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $193.66.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.79, for a total transaction of $105,566.78. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,284 shares in the company, valued at $4,532,870.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.79, for a total transaction of $105,566.78. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,284 shares in the company, valued at $4,532,870.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.67, for a total value of $3,502,575.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,325,513 shares in the company, valued at approximately $362,012,608.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 143,026 shares of company stock worth $24,026,243. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $182.15 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.25 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.94, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.01. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $172.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $154.44. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.35 and a 52-week high of $186.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $66.04 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.17 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

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.