Annex Advisory Services LLC Raises Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Annex Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 13.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 45,786 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,480 shares during the period. Annex Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,080,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $39,000. PayPay Securities Corp increased its stake in Alphabet by 36.1% during the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $49,000. Finally, Navigoe LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $51,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. This trade represents a 2.50% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 195,770 shares of company stock worth $32,036,638 in the last quarter. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the subject of several research analyst reports. 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 report on Monday, March 31st. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 price target (down from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Susquehanna reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $189.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $168.05 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $159.54 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $174.43. The company has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is 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.