Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Bought by Fortem Financial Group LLC

Fortem Financial Group LLC raised its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 7.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 20,520 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,405 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 1.2% of Fortem Financial Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 20th largest position. Fortem Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,173,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. FMR LLC boosted 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 worth $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,178,470,000 after purchasing an additional 10,135,430 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on GOOGL. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Wedbush set a $190.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. BNP Paribas Exane reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $172.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $186.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $201.68.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,837,500.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 261,966 shares in the company, valued at $45,844,050. This represents a 3.85% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total transaction of $5,992,350.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,527,392 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $466,000,536.96. This trade represents a 1.27% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 215,843 shares of company stock worth $37,288,490 in the last three months. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $185.06 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.25 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.63, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. 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’s 50-day simple moving average is $172.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $173.12.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

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.