Central Bank & Trust Co. Raises Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Central Bank & Trust Co. increased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.7% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 96,505 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 682 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 2.8% of Central Bank & Trust Co.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Central Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $17,007,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Mystic Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.7% during the first quarter. Mystic Asset Management Inc. now owns 28,454 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,400,000 after purchasing an additional 1,791 shares during the period. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co boosted its stake in Alphabet by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co now owns 27,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,187,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Cypress Capital LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. Cypress Capital LLC now owns 14,310 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,213,000 after buying an additional 563 shares in the last quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 17.9% in the 1st quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 88,187 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,637,000 after buying an additional 13,371 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alaethes Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Alaethes Wealth LLC now owns 7,646 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,182,000 after buying an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total value of $680,610.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,293 shares in the company, valued at $4,236,785. This represents a 13.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $229.73, for a total value of $7,466,225.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,429,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $558,219,089.16. This trade represents a 1.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 225,588 shares of company stock valued at $44,296,554. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Guggenheim boosted their price target on Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Wedbush boosted their price target on Alphabet from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $270.00 price target (up previously from $235.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have issued a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $222.85.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.2%

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $251.16 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $253.04. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $204.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $178.65. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.75, a PEG ratio of 1.69 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 firm had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th were issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s dividend 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.