City State Bank Reduces Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

City State Bank decreased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.3% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,794 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 80 shares during the period. City State Bank’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $277,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC boosted its position 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 worth $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,483,898,000 after purchasing an additional 15,968,487 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position 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 worth $13,178,470,000 after purchasing an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in Alphabet by 16.2% in 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 during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on GOOGL. Wedbush set a $190.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $178.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $189.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.75.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 195,770 shares of company stock valued at $32,036,638 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 3.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $173.68 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.58, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $160.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

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.