Topsail Wealth Management LLC Increases Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Topsail Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 52.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,628 shares during the period. Topsail Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,622,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Burt Wealth Advisors increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Burt Wealth Advisors now owns 5,307 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,005,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Perritt Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Perritt Capital Management Inc now owns 618 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $117,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Nia Impact Advisors LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Nia Impact Advisors LLC now owns 17,161 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,249,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the period. Hanlon Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Hanlon Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,553 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $673,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the period. Finally, Enzi Wealth boosted its position in Alphabet by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Enzi Wealth now owns 2,561 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $408,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 6,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,192,275. The trade was a 8.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 182,943 shares of company stock valued at $31,223,348. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $182.00 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $171.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $173.13. 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 $2.21 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.46%. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on GOOGL. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $189.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.82.

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.