Lountzis Asset Management LLC Buys 127 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Lountzis Asset Management LLC increased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.3% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 49,772 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 127 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 3.0% of Lountzis Asset Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest holding. Lountzis Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,994,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,483,898,000 after buying an additional 15,968,487 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Alphabet by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,178,470,000 after buying an additional 10,135,430 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in Alphabet by 16.2% during the fourth 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. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating and set a $203.00 price target (up from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.86.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total transaction of $5,801,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $456,991,919.84. This trade represents a 1.25% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s 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 $105,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly 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. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 183,343 shares of company stock valued at $31,296,140. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $182.97 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $171.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $173.20. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.22 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.