Canton Hathaway LLC Buys 8,320 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Canton Hathaway LLC increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 131.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,631 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,320 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 0.5% of Canton Hathaway LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest holding. Canton Hathaway LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,263,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Wealth Group Ltd. grew its position in Alphabet by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 1,582 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $299,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Capital & Planning LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 34.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital & Planning LLC now owns 4,383 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $830,000 after acquiring an additional 1,119 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 50,132 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,490,000 after acquiring an additional 371 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $20,886,000 after acquiring an additional 4,110 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $154,716,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,377,014.99. The trade was a 4.21% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total value of $5,066,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,652,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $413,555,306.40. This represents a 1.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 228,070 shares of company stock valued at $37,745,632. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $166.77 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 18.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $165.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $174.61. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.36%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on GOOGL shares. Westpark Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $178.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 target price (down previously from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, UBS Group set a $195.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $199.83.

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.