Fortis Advisors LLC Raises Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Fortis Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 7.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,548 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 478 shares during the period. Fortis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,013,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 7.5% during the first quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 118,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $18,334,000 after acquiring an additional 8,232 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.7% during the 1st quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 790,182 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $122,194,000 after purchasing an additional 69,755 shares during the last quarter. Pinion Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 100.6% in the 1st quarter. Pinion Investment Advisors LLC now owns 33,524 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,184,000 after purchasing an additional 16,812 shares in the last quarter. Newport Capital Group LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Newport Capital Group LLC now owns 5,940 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $919,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BayBridge Capital Group LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 8.2% during the 1st quarter. BayBridge Capital Group LLC now owns 13,160 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,035,000 after buying an additional 1,001 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $176.77 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $207.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock 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 business has a fifty day moving average of $163.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $174.74.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,837,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 261,966 shares in the company, valued at $45,844,050. The trade was a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 195,570 shares of company stock worth $32,003,532 in the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Mizuho dropped their price target on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $189.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.75.

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.