SC&H Financial Advisors Inc. Has $2.05 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

SC&H Financial Advisors Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 13,223 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 255 shares during the period. SC&H Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,045,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Elwood & Goetz Wealth Advisory Group LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 35.3% in the first quarter. Elwood & Goetz Wealth Advisory Group LLC now owns 2,129 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $329,000 after buying an additional 556 shares in the last quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 4.1% in the first quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC now owns 19,983 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,090,000 after buying an additional 783 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Strategies LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 6.3% in the first quarter. Eagle Strategies LLC now owns 9,673 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,496,000 after buying an additional 575 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 3.0% in the first quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 468,308 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $72,419,000 after buying an additional 13,770 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vantage Point Financial LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 19.7% in the first quarter. Vantage Point Financial LLC now owns 4,337 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $671,000 after buying an additional 715 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on GOOGL. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $189.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $178.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.95.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.68, for a total transaction of $5,742,100.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,555,196 shares in the company, valued at $451,452,029.28. This trade represents a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total transaction of $32,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,232,544.70. This trade represents a 2.56% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 216,195 shares of company stock worth $35,764,898 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 2.9%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $178.53 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 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77. The company has a market capitalization of $2.17 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.90, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $166.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $174.52.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

About Alphabet

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.