Hubbell Strickland Wealth Management LLC Purchases New Shares in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Hubbell Strickland Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 1,337 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $202,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $68,980,354,000 after buying an additional 6,374,756 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $15,441,917,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,220,857 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,316,902,000 after acquiring an additional 1,472,043 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 34,910,194 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,876,605,000 after purchasing an additional 874,919 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 30,408,933 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,247,868,000 after purchasing an additional 686,514 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $185.82 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $174.46 and its 200-day moving average price is $155.39. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $2.30 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.50, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $115.35 and a one year high of $186.09.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.40. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. The business 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 earned $1.17 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on GOOGL shares. Truist Financial increased their price objective on Alphabet from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $215.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $173.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 price target (up previously from $160.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $193.66.

About Alphabet

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.