Martin Capital Advisors LLP Sells 454 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Martin Capital Advisors LLP lowered its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,023 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 454 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 1.6% of Martin Capital Advisors LLP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Martin Capital Advisors LLP’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,323,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co increased its stake in Alphabet by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co now owns 27,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,187,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the period. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $3,119,000. Cypress Capital LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. Cypress Capital LLC now owns 14,310 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,213,000 after acquiring an additional 563 shares during the period. Optivise Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,035,000 after acquiring an additional 403 shares during the period. Finally, Community Bank N.A. increased its stake in Alphabet by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 46,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,741,000 after acquiring an additional 2,790 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on GOOGL. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and set a $189.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on Alphabet from $178.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, DA Davidson decreased their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $201.68.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet 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 transaction, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,527,392 shares in the company, valued at $466,000,536.96. The trade was a 1.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 215,843 shares of company stock valued at $37,288,490. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.8%

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $185.06 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The company has a market cap of $2.25 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.00. The business’s fifty day moving average is $172.90 and its 200 day moving average is $173.12.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. Alphabet’s 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.