Kennicott Capital Management LLC Boosts Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Kennicott Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 64.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,820 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,100 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 0.2% of Kennicott Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest position. Kennicott Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $394,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. RWQ Financial Management Services Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. RWQ Financial Management Services Inc. now owns 61,499 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,591,000 after acquiring an additional 4,664 shares during the last quarter. Robbins Farley raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 15,006 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,096,000 after acquiring an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 9.6% in the 3rd quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC now owns 15,747 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,061,000 after acquiring an additional 1,385 shares during the last quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 8.0% in the 3rd quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,623 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $998,000 after acquiring an additional 564 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,700 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $377,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $163.86 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.15 and a quick ratio of 2.10. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $103.71 and a 1-year high of $174.71. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $149.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $141.95. The stock has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.13, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $66.04 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.17 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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 0.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.80, for a total value of $3,753,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,280,511 shares in the company, valued at $380,389,234.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.80, for a total value of $3,753,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,280,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $380,389,234.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 2,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total transaction of $369,096.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,891 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,035,402.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 275,129 shares of company stock worth $40,382,765. Corporate insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Alphabet from $174.00 to $196.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Alphabet from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Wedbush upped their price objective on Alphabet from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Alphabet from $165.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $190.60.

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.