City Center Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

City Center Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 1,346 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $237,000.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $78,839,544,000 after acquiring an additional 14,307,345 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 11.4% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 43,865,520 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,783,364,000 after acquiring an additional 4,473,901 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 43,648,514 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,749,806,000 after purchasing an additional 593,345 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 39,792,300 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,153,481,000 after purchasing an additional 727,335 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 38,556,577 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,962,389,000 after purchasing an additional 104,859 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Phillip Securities cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $196.00 to $201.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, JMP Securities raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Three equities research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $221.44.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $240.80 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $242.25. The stock has a market cap of $2.91 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $201.89 and a 200 day moving average of $177.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.60 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.95%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $203.79, for a total transaction of $122,274.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 6,316 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,287,137.64. This trade represents a 8.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director owned 240,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,656,704. This represents a 5.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 254,710 shares of company stock valued at $49,208,380 in the last quarter. 11.64% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.