Augustine Asset Management Inc. Grows Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Augustine Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,730 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the quarter. Augustine Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $422,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wealth Group Ltd. raised its position in Alphabet by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 1,582 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $299,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 50,132 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,490,000 after purchasing an additional 371 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $20,886,000 after purchasing an additional 4,110 shares during the period. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $154,716,000. Finally, Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,826,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on GOOGL. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 31st. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Ten research 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 data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.95.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL opened at $179.08 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.17 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.96, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.00. 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’s 50-day moving average price is $168.70 and its 200 day moving average price is $173.97.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,575,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 255,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,695,000. The trade was a 3.40% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director owned 6,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,192,275. The trade was a 8.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 215,643 shares of company stock worth $36,330,928 in the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.