Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Bought by Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 12.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 195,965 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 20,993 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises approximately 1.6% of Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $30,304,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Peoples Bank KS raised its stake in Alphabet by 2.9% during the first quarter. Peoples Bank KS now owns 19,358 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,993,000 after acquiring an additional 540 shares during the period. Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% during the first quarter. Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 17,953 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,776,000 after purchasing an additional 390 shares during the last quarter. Dumont & Blake Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Dumont & Blake Investment Advisors LLC now owns 23,039 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,563,000 after purchasing an additional 141 shares during the period. Veery Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 21.6% during the 1st quarter. Veery Capital LLC now owns 3,437 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $532,000 after purchasing an additional 611 shares during the period. Finally, Catalyst Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. Catalyst Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,630 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $407,000 after purchasing an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. Citigroup upped their price objective on Alphabet from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 25th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 target price (down previously from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, DZ Bank lowered shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $169.73 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The company has a market cap of $2.06 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $159.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $174.56.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results 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. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,837,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 261,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,844,050. This represents a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,374 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total value of $238,347.78. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,606,213.28. This represents a 8.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 164,533 shares of company stock valued at $26,772,774 in the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.