MKT Advisors LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

MKT Advisors LLC raised its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.6% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 7,589 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 195 shares during the period. MKT Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,114,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Macroview Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 1,293 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $245,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 2,381 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $457,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 7,527 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,425,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. Burt Wealth Advisors lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Burt Wealth Advisors now owns 5,307 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,005,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Perritt Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. Perritt Capital Management Inc now owns 618 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $117,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on GOOGL. Susquehanna decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Wedbush set a $190.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. 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 report on Monday, April 14th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $199.75.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. The trade was a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 195,770 shares of company stock valued at $32,036,638 in the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 3.3%

GOOGL stock opened at $173.68 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $160.14 and a 200-day moving average price of $174.35. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The business 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 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. This is a boost 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 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.