Saratoga Research & Investment Management Grows Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Saratoga Research & Investment Management raised its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 19.1% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,001,128 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 160,884 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 6.9% of Saratoga Research & Investment Management’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Saratoga Research & Investment Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $151,100,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $15,441,917,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $68,980,354,000 after buying an additional 6,374,756 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado lifted its stake in Alphabet by 39,754.9% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 6,025,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $841,725,000 after buying an additional 6,010,548 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4,894.1% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 5,445,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,606,670,000 after buying an additional 5,336,359 shares during the period. Finally, Lone Pine Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth $407,367,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total transaction of $125,126.54. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 30,650 shares in the company, valued at $5,623,355.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total transaction of $125,126.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 30,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,623,355.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total transaction of $600,175.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares in the company, valued at $1,655.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 123,788 shares of company stock valued at $21,143,403 over the last quarter. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $185.24 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.35 and a 52 week high of $186.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.15. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $173.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $154.80. The firm has a market cap of $2.29 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.05.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Argus increased their target price on Alphabet from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Mizuho lifted their target price on Alphabet from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Roth Mkm upped their price target on Alphabet from $164.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Wedbush lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $173.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $193.66.

About Alphabet

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.