Birch Capital Management LLC Acquires 480 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Birch Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 15.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,681 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 480 shares during the quarter. Birch Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $556,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $15,441,917,000. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 227,317,469 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,746,764,000 after purchasing an additional 12,070,681 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $68,980,354,000 after purchasing an additional 6,374,756 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 39,754.9% during the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 6,025,667 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $841,725,000 after purchasing an additional 6,010,548 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 4,894.1% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 5,445,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,606,670,000 after acquiring an additional 5,336,359 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.79, for a total transaction of $105,566.78. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,532,870.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 12,084 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.19, for a total value of $1,826,979.96. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 48,717 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,365,523.23. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.79, for a total transaction of $105,566.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,532,870.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 158,458 shares of company stock valued at $26,375,053 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Alphabet from $141.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $215.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $196.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, Argus boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $193.26.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.3 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $180.13 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $2.23 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.01. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $170.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $152.72. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.35 and a 1 year high of $180.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.15 and a quick ratio of 2.15.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.40. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. The firm had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $66.04 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.17 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.6 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 12.27%.

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.