GSB Wealth Management LLC Has $2.18 Million Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

GSB Wealth Management LLC decreased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,092 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 544 shares during the quarter. GSB Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,179,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wealth Group Ltd. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 1,582 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $299,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Capital & Planning LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 34.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital & Planning LLC now owns 4,383 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $830,000 after purchasing an additional 1,119 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 50,132 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,490,000 after purchasing an additional 371 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $20,886,000 after purchasing an additional 4,110 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $154,716,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,837,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 261,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,844,050. This trade represents a 3.85% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total value of $1,962,705.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. This represents a 19.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 195,570 shares of company stock valued at $32,003,532 over the last ninety days. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.5%

Alphabet stock opened at $173.32 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $164.58 and a 200 day simple moving average of $174.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.10 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.32, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $178.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Wedbush set a $190.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $159.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $199.75.

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.