Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. Raises Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 18.7% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 19,769 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,109 shares during the quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,057,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 477.2% during the first quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. now owns 64,728 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,009,000 after purchasing an additional 53,513 shares in the last quarter. Boltwood Capital Management lifted its stake in Alphabet by 4.4% during the first quarter. Boltwood Capital Management now owns 24,630 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,809,000 after purchasing an additional 1,037 shares in the last quarter. Lake Street Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 5.7% during the first quarter. Lake Street Private Wealth LLC now owns 38,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,927,000 after purchasing an additional 2,063 shares in the last quarter. Naples Global Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 11.1% during the first quarter. Naples Global Advisors LLC now owns 39,661 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,133,000 after purchasing an additional 3,964 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Grassi Investment Management raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.8% in the first quarter. Grassi Investment Management now owns 55,024 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,509,000 after acquiring an additional 2,529 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $168.05 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $159.54 and its two-hundred day moving average is $174.43. The firm has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.88, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 quarter last year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,377,014.99. This trade represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total value of $1,962,705.76. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. This represents a 19.35% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 195,770 shares of company stock valued at $32,036,638. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Susquehanna reduced their price objective on Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.75.

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.