Castle Wealth Management LLC Has $1.75 Million Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Castle Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 31.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 10,564 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,540 shares during the period. Castle Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,752,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in Alphabet by 70.6% during the first quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 101,230 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,279,000 after buying an additional 41,880 shares during the period. Quent Capital LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3.6% in the first quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 31,171 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,705,000 after acquiring an additional 1,072 shares during the last quarter. Portland Global Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. Portland Global Advisors LLC now owns 4,995 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $754,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.4% during the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 6,576,002 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $992,516,000 after purchasing an additional 337,795 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Interchange Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% in the 1st quarter. Interchange Capital Partners LLC now owns 13,104 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,975,000 after purchasing an additional 395 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $210.00 price target (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $217.00 price target (up from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.90.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $175.98 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $167.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $170.40. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $127.90 and a 52-week high of $191.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The company has a market cap of $2.15 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.55 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.68, for a total value of $3,570,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,137,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $339,160,251.80. This represents a 1.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total transaction of $109,420.08. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 32,017 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,136,807.48. This trade represents a 2.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 184,295 shares of company stock valued at $30,698,791 in the last quarter. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by 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.