Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Holdings Increased by Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC

Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 6.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 22,864 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,355 shares during the period. Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,536,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $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 period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 15,968,487 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased 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 valued at $13,178,470,000 after purchasing an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased 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 valued at $13,635,878,000 after purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total value of $5,992,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,527,392 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $466,000,536.96. The trade was a 1.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 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 value of $1,575,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 255,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,695,000. This represents a 3.40% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 215,843 shares of company stock valued at $37,288,490 over the last quarter. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on Alphabet from $178.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price target on Alphabet from $171.00 to $196.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Westpark Capital restated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, May 8th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $201.68.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL opened at $185.06 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.25 trillion, a price-to-earnings 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 current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $172.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $173.12.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 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.