Wills Financial Group LLC Makes New Investment in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Wills Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 43,031 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,654,000. Alphabet accounts for approximately 3.0% of Wills Financial Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Eagle Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 50,132 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,490,000 after purchasing an additional 371 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $20,886,000 after purchasing an additional 4,110 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,826,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE now owns 29,100 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,509,000 after purchasing an additional 1,003 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hudson Value Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 22.7% during the fourth quarter. Hudson Value Partners LLC now owns 73,282 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,873,000 after purchasing an additional 13,564 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on GOOGL. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $184.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. JMP Securities boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $192.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Ten 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $211.53.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total transaction of $4,637,754.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 42,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,371,905.30. The trade was a 35.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total value of $5,801,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. This trade represents a 1.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 274,219 shares of company stock valued at $49,674,273 in the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.2%

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $201.00 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $181.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $172.81. The stock has a market cap of $2.43 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. The company had revenue of $96,428,000 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.60 billion. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 8.95%.

Alphabet Company 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.