Drexel Morgan & Co. Makes New Investment in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Drexel Morgan & Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 1,520 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $277,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Beaton Management Co. Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Beaton Management Co. Inc. now owns 15,543 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,831,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the period. Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% in the second quarter. Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC now owns 16,310 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,971,000 after acquiring an additional 118 shares during the period. Bridges Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 133.0% during the second quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,709,464 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $311,379,000 after purchasing an additional 975,817 shares in the last quarter. Callan Capital LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 12.1% during the 2nd quarter. Callan Capital LLC now owns 33,976 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,189,000 after purchasing an additional 3,672 shares during the period. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 9.1% in the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 23,263,385 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,237,426,000 after purchasing an additional 1,949,476 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GOOGL. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $206.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $204.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $208.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Guggenheim increased their target price on Alphabet from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $201.14.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $165.86 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.05 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $120.21 and a one year high of $191.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $162.06 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $167.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.60 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.44 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.27%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.07, for a total value of $3,759,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,129,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $355,743,153.42. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.85, for a total transaction of $278,775.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 30,824 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,728,640.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.07, for a total transaction of $3,759,075.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,129,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $355,743,153.42. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 217,592 shares of company stock valued at $35,922,911. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.