American Investment Services Inc. Purchases 241 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

American Investment Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 29,130 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 241 shares during the quarter. American Investment Services Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,514,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 518.8% in the fourth quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. PayPay Securities Corp boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 36.1% in the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Anderson Financial Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $49,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.4%

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $168.47 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.93, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $158.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $174.76. 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.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on GOOGL. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.75.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total transaction of $1,962,705.76. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,181,333.08. This trade represents a 19.35% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,374 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total value of $238,347.78. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,606,213.28. The trade was a 8.38% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 164,654 shares of company stock valued at $26,793,380 in the last ninety days. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet 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.