Seneschal Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 3,347 Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Seneschal Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 3,347 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $634,000. Alphabet comprises 0.5% of Seneschal Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest holding.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,283,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,871,384,000 after buying an additional 337,031 shares during the last quarter. Headinvest LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 0.8% during the third quarter. Headinvest LLC now owns 47,634 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,900,000 after purchasing an additional 363 shares during the period. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $154,000. Dean Investment Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 23.1% during the 3rd quarter. Dean Investment Associates LLC now owns 2,025 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $336,000 after buying an additional 380 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hodges Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 11.8% in the 3rd quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,009 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,821,000 after buying an additional 1,795 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.7 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $156.31 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.91 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.42, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $167.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.14. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.51%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.51, for a total transaction of $3,281,671.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,997,521.61. This trade represents a 29.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 115,663 shares of company stock valued at $20,286,447. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on GOOGL. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. DZ Bank downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Westpark Capital upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 31st. Finally, UBS Group set a $190.00 price target on Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.72.

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.