Parkside Financial Bank & Trust Boosts Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 63.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 32,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,559 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 0.8% of Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest position. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,515,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Demars Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Demars Financial Group LLC now owns 3,420 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $478,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc now owns 6,385 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $892,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares during the period. Stockman Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Stockman Wealth Management Inc. now owns 63,237 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,834,000 after purchasing an additional 1,766 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 15.7% during the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 15,650 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,186,000 after purchasing an additional 2,123 shares during the period. Finally, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 501,569 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $70,064,000 after purchasing an additional 6,049 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $163.86 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $149.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $141.95. The company has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.13, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a current ratio of 2.15, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $103.71 and a 1 year high of $174.71.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.40. The firm had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $66.04 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.17 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.49 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th will be given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.70, for a total value of $2,985,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,332,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $309,548,095.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.70, for a total transaction of $2,985,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,332,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $309,548,095.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.49, for a total value of $93,086.18. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 28,602 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,903,886.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 275,129 shares of company stock valued at $40,382,765 over the last ninety days. 0.88% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. JMP Securities upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $141.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Argus upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, 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 report on Friday, April 26th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $190.60.

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.