Westwind Capital Raises Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Westwind Capital raised its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 7.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,743 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the period. Westwind Capital’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $270,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $18,672,198,000 after acquiring an additional 7,574,417 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after acquiring an additional 10,135,430 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 6,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,192,275. This represents a 8.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total value of $5,801,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $456,991,919.84. The trade was a 1.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 215,643 shares of company stock worth $36,330,928. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.2%

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $179.08 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.17 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $207.05. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $168.36 and a 200-day moving average price of $174.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Bank of America boosted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.95.

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.