Maple Capital Management Inc. Boosts Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Maple Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 7.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,913 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 658 shares during the quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,533,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $4,317,606,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% during the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 307.6% during the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,375,509,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $2,786,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 240,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,656,704. This represents a 5.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $229.73, for a total transaction of $7,466,225.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,429,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $558,219,089.16. The trade was a 1.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 254,710 shares of company stock worth $49,208,380 over the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $240.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $196.00 to $201.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, DA Davidson boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have issued a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $221.44.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $240.37 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.91 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.60, a PEG ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $200.66 and a 200 day moving average of $177.03. 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 one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $242.25.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion during 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%. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.