Argent Advisors Inc. Acquires 3,778 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Argent Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 36.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,102 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,778 shares during the period. Argent Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,181,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Alphabet by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $18,672,198,000 after purchasing an additional 7,574,417 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Alphabet by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,635,878,000 after purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Alphabet by 17.0% during 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 in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $179.08 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $168.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $173.87. The company has a market cap of $2.17 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week 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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet 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 value of $1,575,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 255,400 shares in the company, valued at $44,695,000. The trade was a 3.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $105,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 215,643 shares of company stock worth $36,330,928 over the last ninety days. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $203.00 price objective (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.95.

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.