Crane Advisory LLC Has $733,000 Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Crane Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 5.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,662 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 223 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up 0.1% of Crane Advisory LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 24th biggest holding. Crane Advisory LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $733,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wealth Group Ltd. lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 78 shares during the period. Capital & Planning LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 34.3% during 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 boosted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 371 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $20,886,000 after purchasing an additional 4,110 shares during the period. Finally, Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $154,716,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the topic of several research reports. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp upped their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $178.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. 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 company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $176.77 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.15 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $163.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $174.74. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total transaction of $32,380.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 7,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,232,544.70. This represents a 2.56% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was 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 directly owns 2,587,696 shares in the company, valued at $436,570,192.16. This trade represents a 1.24% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 195,570 shares of company stock worth $32,003,532. 11.64% of the stock is owned by company 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.