Stanley Laman Group Ltd. Grows Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Stanley Laman Group Ltd. increased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 33.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,236 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,819 shares during the period. Stanley Laman Group Ltd.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,011,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. RWQ Financial Management Services Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.2% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Robbins Farley boosted its stake in Alphabet by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 15,006 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,096,000 after buying an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 9.6% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake 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 worth $998,000 after acquiring an additional 564 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,700 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $377,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.51, for a total value of $41,853.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,291 shares in the company, valued at $1,296,187.41. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 300 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.51, for a total value of $41,853.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,291 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,296,187.41. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total value of $508,150.26. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 144,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,566,519.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 275,129 shares of company stock valued at $40,382,765 over the last quarter. 0.88% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Roth Mkm increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $164.00 to $202.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $190.60.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $167.24 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $149.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $142.12. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $103.97 and a one year high of $174.71. The firm has a market cap of $2.08 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.15.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $80.54 billion during 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.17 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 12.27%.

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.