Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC Purchases New Shares in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 880,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $166,633,000. Alphabet comprises about 0.9% of Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest holding.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. FMR LLC increased its stake in 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. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $18,672,198,000 after buying an additional 7,574,417 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in Alphabet by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,635,878,000 after acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,178,470,000 after buying an additional 10,135,430 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.0%

Alphabet stock opened at $152.75 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The stock has a market cap of $1.85 trillion, a PE ratio of 18.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $158.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $175.27. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. Research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.55%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on GOOGL. Truist Financial lowered their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Susquehanna lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Ten investment 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.51, for a total value of $3,281,671.90. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,111 shares in the company, valued at $7,997,521.61. This trade represents a 29.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 179,324 shares of company stock valued at $30,153,353. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

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.