Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Purchased by CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp

CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.1% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 201,717 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,118 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 0.4% of CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings, making the stock its 26th largest position. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $35,549,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mystic Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 6.7% in the first quarter. Mystic Asset Management Inc. now owns 28,454 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,400,000 after buying an additional 1,791 shares in the last quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co increased its holdings in Alphabet by 0.3% in the first quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co now owns 27,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,187,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Cypress Capital LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 4.1% in the first quarter. Cypress Capital LLC now owns 14,310 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,213,000 after buying an additional 563 shares in the last quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 17.9% in the first quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 88,187 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,637,000 after buying an additional 13,371 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alaethes Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 1.1% in the first quarter. Alaethes Wealth LLC now owns 7,646 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,182,000 after buying an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on GOOGL. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $191.00 to $224.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Moffett Nathanson raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, September 21st. Finally, BNP Paribas cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $242.98.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total transaction of $4,637,754.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 42,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,371,905.30. The trade was a 35.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at $45,213,984. The trade was a 7.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 276,738 shares of company stock worth $59,135,475. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of GOOGL opened at $244.62 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $2.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.00. The company’s fifty day moving average is $224.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $187.53. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $256.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly 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. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 8.95%.

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.