Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC Boosts Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 21.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,607 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 285 shares during the quarter. Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $283,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 242.9% during the 1st quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 168 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the period. IMA Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth $28,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth $28,000. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 85.7% during the 1st quarter. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC now owns 195 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the period. Finally, Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.41, for a total value of $7,910,825.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,402,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $584,699,785.79. This represents a 1.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 953 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.20, for a total value of $229,863.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 17,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,171,312.80. This represents a 5.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 276,338 shares of company stock worth $59,062,683 in the last quarter. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GOOGL. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Alphabet from $230.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company set a $236.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Melius Research increased their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $255.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, Wedbush upped their price objective on Alphabet from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $245.88.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.1%

Shares of GOOGL opened at $236.57 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.86 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $226.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $188.84. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $256.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th were issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.95%.

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.