Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC Has $68.90 Million Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC decreased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 445,571 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 13,771 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 3.3% of Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $68,903,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $3,119,000. Optivise Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,035,000 after purchasing an additional 403 shares during the last quarter. Community Bank N.A. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 46,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,741,000 after purchasing an additional 2,790 shares during the last quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd increased its position in Alphabet by 30.0% during the 4th quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 61,792 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,816,000 after purchasing an additional 14,262 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Absolute Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 14.0% in the 4th quarter. Absolute Capital Management LLC now owns 2,096 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $401,000 after purchasing an additional 258 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total value of $32,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,232,544.70. The trade was a 2.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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 company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 195,570 shares of company stock worth $32,003,532 in the last quarter. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. UBS Group set a $195.00 price objective on Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $178.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $173.32 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.10 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $164.58 and a 200-day moving average price of $174.75. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect 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 was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.