Strive Asset Management LLC Buys Shares of 1,152 Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Strive Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 1,152 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $218,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. boosted its position in Alphabet by 518.8% in the 4th quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $39,000. PayPay Securities Corp boosted its position in Alphabet by 36.1% in the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Anderson Financial Strategies LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $49,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on GOOGL. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Alphabet from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp raised their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reduced their price target on Alphabet from $205.00 to $189.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten investment 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $166.19 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $2.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $158.21 and its 200-day moving average is $175.04. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.51%. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total value of $5,066,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,652,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $413,555,306.40. The trade was a 1.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total value of $3,245,761.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,449,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $265,914,995.28. This represents a 1.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 179,324 shares of company stock valued at $30,153,353. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.