Leelyn Smith LLC Purchases 1,087 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Leelyn Smith LLC increased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.9% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 39,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,087 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 1.4% of Leelyn Smith LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 14th largest position. Leelyn Smith LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,119,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 59,125 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,259,000 after purchasing an additional 907 shares during the last quarter. MUFG Securities EMEA plc raised its holdings in Alphabet by 3,745.8% in the fourth quarter. MUFG Securities EMEA plc now owns 520,610 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $72,724,000 after buying an additional 507,073 shares during the last quarter. Evermay Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Evermay Wealth Management LLC now owns 40,830 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,704,000 after buying an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Mitchell Sinkler & Starr PA grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 15.9% during the fourth quarter. Mitchell Sinkler & Starr PA now owns 83,947 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,727,000 after buying an additional 11,535 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bell & Brown Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $8,428,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $206.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, DA Davidson assumed coverage on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $170.00 price objective for the company. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $201.35.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $163.95 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $163.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $166.11. The company has a market capitalization of $2.03 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.15, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $120.21 and a twelve month high of $191.75. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.60 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.44 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 12.27%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total value of $115,500.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 27,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,590,960. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total value of $115,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 27,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,590,960. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.85, for a total value of $278,775.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 30,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,728,640.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 180,867 shares of company stock worth $29,878,106. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.