Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC Purchases 6,818 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 10.8% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 69,893 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 6,818 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 3.0% of Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $10,808,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Wealth Group Ltd. grew its position in Alphabet by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 1,582 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $299,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Capital & Planning LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 34.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital & Planning LLC now owns 4,383 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $830,000 after acquiring an additional 1,119 shares during the period. Eagle Capital Management LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 50,132 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,490,000 after buying an additional 371 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $20,886,000 after buying an additional 4,110 shares during the period. Finally, Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $154,716,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.71, for a total value of $5,483,075.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,587,696 shares in the company, valued at $436,570,192.16. This represents a 1.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at approximately $45,844,050. This trade represents a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 195,770 shares of company stock worth $32,036,638. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 3.3%

Shares of GOOGL opened at $173.68 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $160.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $174.35. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05. The company has a market capitalization of $2.11 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.58, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. 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 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. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS 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 paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.36%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. UBS Group set a $195.00 price target on Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp raised 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. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Ten research 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, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.75.

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.