MFA Wealth Advisors LLC Buys 9,124 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

MFA Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 43.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 30,220 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,124 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 1.2% of MFA Wealth Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 21st biggest position. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,673,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,483,898,000 after purchasing an additional 15,968,487 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after purchasing an additional 10,135,430 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on GOOGL. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Wedbush set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $178.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective (down from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, DA Davidson lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.75.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total value of $1,962,705.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at $8,181,333.08. The trade was a 19.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 228,070 shares of company stock valued at $37,745,632 over the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $166.64 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 18.58, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.01. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $164.77 and its 200 day moving average price is $174.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

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.