American Trust Investment Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

American Trust Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 38,438 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 416 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 2.5% of American Trust Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 9th biggest position. American Trust Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,944,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter valued at $4,317,606,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,483,898,000 after purchasing an additional 15,968,487 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 307.6% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,302,644 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,593,201,000 after purchasing an additional 7,774,811 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $1,375,509,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $211.35 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $192.29 and a 200-day moving average price of $174.41. The company has a market cap of $2.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.51, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $214.65.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.60 billion. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 8.95%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total transaction of $4,637,754.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 42,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,371,905.30. The trade was a 35.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $199.92, for a total value of $6,497,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,462,392 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $492,281,408.64. This trade represents a 1.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 222,210 shares of company stock worth $41,742,155 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on GOOGL shares. BNP Paribas Exane reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $172.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, June 27th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Alphabet from $195.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Alphabet from $203.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $213.63.

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.