Probity Advisors Inc. Buys 1,078 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Probity Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 14.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,785 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,078 shares during the period. Probity Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,663,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after buying an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $18,672,198,000 after buying an additional 7,574,417 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after buying an additional 10,037,685 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings 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 valued at $13,178,470,000 after buying an additional 10,135,430 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.4%

Alphabet stock opened at $168.47 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $158.67 and a 200 day moving average of $174.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. 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 earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. 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 of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GOOGL. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, DZ Bank cut shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.75.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,837,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 261,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,844,050. This represents a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 three months. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.