Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. Purchases 390 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.2% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 17,953 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 390 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 1.9% of Cascade Investment Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. Cascade Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,776,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

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

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the business’s 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 $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 owns 49,037 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,181,333.08. The trade was a 19.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 164,533 shares of company stock valued at $26,772,774. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on GOOGL shares. UBS Group set a $195.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 price target (down previously from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Ten investment 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $169.73 on Friday. 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 one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $207.05. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $159.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $174.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.06 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.08, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast 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 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 an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

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.