Brighton Jones LLC Boosts Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 7.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 118,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,232 shares during the quarter. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $18,334,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. PayPay Securities Corp increased its stake in Alphabet by 36.1% in the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $49,000. Navigoe LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $51,000. Finally, Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $53,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total value of $5,066,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,652,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $413,555,306.40. The trade was a 1.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. The trade was a 4.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 195,570 shares of company stock valued at $32,003,532. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.75.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $176.77 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The firm has a market cap of $2.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $163.53 and a 200-day moving average price of $174.74. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

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.