First PREMIER Bank Acquires 80 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

First PREMIER Bank boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,735 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the quarter. First PREMIER Bank’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $267,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $3,119,000. Optivise Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,035,000 after purchasing an additional 403 shares in the last quarter. Community Bank N.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 46,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,741,000 after purchasing an additional 2,790 shares in the last quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 30.0% in the 4th quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 61,792 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,816,000 after purchasing an additional 14,262 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Absolute Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 14.0% in the 4th quarter. Absolute Capital Management LLC now owns 2,096 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $401,000 after purchasing an additional 258 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wedbush set a $190.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Westpark Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, May 8th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective (down from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Tigress Financial increased their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, DA Davidson dropped their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Ten research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.83.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total transaction of $1,962,705.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 49,037 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,181,333.08. This trade represents a 19.35% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total value of $32,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,232,544.70. The trade was a 2.56% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 228,070 shares of company stock valued at $37,745,632 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $166.77 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $207.05. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average price of $165.10 and a 200-day moving average price of $174.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

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.