American Financial Advisors LLC Decreases Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

American Financial Advisors LLC lessened its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.6% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 18,164 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 680 shares during the period. American Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,741,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GOOGL. RWQ Financial Management Services Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. RWQ Financial Management Services Inc. now owns 61,499 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,591,000 after purchasing an additional 4,664 shares in the last quarter. Robbins Farley grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 15,006 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,096,000 after buying an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.6% in the third quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC now owns 15,747 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,061,000 after buying an additional 1,385 shares during the last quarter. CKW Financial Group lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.8% during the first quarter. CKW Financial Group now owns 13,830 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,150,000 after buying an additional 760 shares during the period. Finally, Quantum Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 8.0% during the third quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,623 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $998,000 after acquiring an additional 564 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on GOOGL. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Alphabet from $141.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $155.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Roth Mkm increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $164.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 target price (up from $160.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday. Finally, Wedbush upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $189.44.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total value of $35,433.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 15,104 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,326,922.24. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total transaction of $94,769.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,920 shares in the company, valued at $4,009,032.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 230 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.06, for a total value of $35,433.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 15,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,326,922.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 253,439 shares of company stock valued at $36,746,578 over the last three months. 0.88% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Down 3.4 %

Shares of Alphabet stock traded down $5.80 on Monday, hitting $166.15. 45,549,086 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 30,833,311. The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $148.36 and its 200 day moving average is $141.62. The stock has a market cap of $2.07 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.48, a PEG ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $103.71 and a 52-week high of $174.71.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.40. The firm had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $66.04 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.17 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%.

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.