Paragon Financial Partners Inc. Raises Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Paragon Financial Partners Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 185.1% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,766 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,445 shares during the quarter. Paragon Financial Partners Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $582,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $18,672,198,000 after purchasing an additional 7,574,417 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,635,878,000 after buying an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,178,470,000 after buying an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $173.68 on Friday. 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 Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $207.05. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $160.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.58, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a boost 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 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,293,285.89. This trade represents a 2.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at 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 transaction of $1,962,705.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at $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. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Susquehanna cut their target price on Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Truist Financial cut their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.75.

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.