71,400 Shares in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Bought by Ariose Capital Management Ltd

Ariose Capital Management Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 71,400 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $11,041,000. Alphabet makes up about 12.1% of Ariose Capital Management Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 4th largest holding.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $49,000. Navigoe LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $51,000. Elite Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter valued at about $42,000. Finally, Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $53,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $178.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $175.00 to $177.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.61.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.8%

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $181.56 on Tuesday. 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 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $207.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.20 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $170.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $173.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 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 $1,837,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 261,966 shares in the company, valued at $45,844,050. The trade was a 3.85% decrease in their position. The transaction 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 business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total transaction of $5,801,900.00. Following the transaction, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 215,443 shares of company stock worth $36,298,548 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

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.