Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. Grows Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 18.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm 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 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $39,000. PayPay Securities Corp increased its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 65 shares during the period. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $49,000. Finally, Navigoe LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $51,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $168.05 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $159.54 and a 200 day moving average price of $174.43. The firm has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Bank of America boosted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the sale, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 195,770 shares of company stock worth $32,036,638. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

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.