CRA Financial Services LLC Raises Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

CRA Financial Services LLC increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 66,305 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 573 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 2.2% of CRA Financial Services LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. CRA Financial Services LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $10,007,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. raised its position in Alphabet by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. now owns 10,328 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,560,000 after purchasing an additional 215 shares in the last quarter. Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 87.7% during the first quarter. Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC now owns 31,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,748,000 after buying an additional 14,694 shares during the period. Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.7% in the first quarter. Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC now owns 21,355 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,223,000 after acquiring an additional 1,150 shares in the last quarter. First Bank & Trust lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.5% in the first quarter. First Bank & Trust now owns 9,694 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,463,000 after acquiring an additional 239 shares during the period. Finally, Saratoga Research & Investment Management increased its position in Alphabet by 19.1% during the 1st quarter. Saratoga Research & Investment Management now owns 1,001,128 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $151,100,000 after purchasing an additional 160,884 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on GOOGL. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $195.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Tigress Financial increased their target price on Alphabet from $176.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Alphabet from $155.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 target price (up previously from $160.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Wedbush increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $193.66.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total value of $125,126.54. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 30,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,623,355.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total transaction of $600,175.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares in the company, valued at $1,655.91. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total transaction of $125,126.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 30,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,623,355.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 123,788 shares of company stock valued at $21,143,403. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $185.24 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.15 and a quick ratio of 2.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.29 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.41, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.05. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $173.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $154.80. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.35 and a 12 month high of $186.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $66.04 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.17 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.6 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 12.27%.

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.