Full Sail Capital LLC Buys 257 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Full Sail Capital LLC raised its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,597 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 257 shares during the period. Full Sail Capital LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,195,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Fullerton Fund Management Co Ltd. increased its position in Alphabet by 14.0% in the 4th quarter. Fullerton Fund Management Co Ltd. now owns 128,317 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $24,290,000 after buying an additional 15,773 shares in the last quarter. Elefante Mark B acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,491,000. Ethic Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 14.8% during the fourth quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 592,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $112,127,000 after acquiring an additional 76,452 shares in the last quarter. Eschler Asset Management LLP raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. Eschler Asset Management LLP now owns 19,159 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,646,000 after purchasing an additional 1,519 shares during the period. Finally, Fiduciary Trust Co lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Fiduciary Trust Co now owns 751,833 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $142,322,000 after purchasing an additional 8,387 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total transaction of $5,066,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,652,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $413,555,306.40. This trade represents a 1.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were 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 $2,377,014.99. The trade was a 4.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 179,324 shares of company stock worth $30,153,353 over the last quarter. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on GOOGL. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 price target (down previously from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, UBS Group set a $195.00 target price on Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.75.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of GOOGL opened at $152.75 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.85 trillion, a P/E ratio of 18.98, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $158.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $175.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.55%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 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.