Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund bought a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 141,174 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $22,056,000. Alphabet comprises 1.6% of Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund's portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest position.
A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 9.3% during the fourth quarter. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC now owns 28,044 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $5,341,000 after purchasing an additional 2,390 shares during the last quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC now owns 31,967 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $6,088,000 after acquiring an additional 380 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $22,901,000 after acquiring an additional 6,410 shares during the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $204,262,000. Finally, Ascent Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 246.2% in the 4th quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,698 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,085,000 after purchasing an additional 4,052 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several research firms have recently issued reports on GOOG. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Susquehanna restated a "positive" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $204.88.
Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on Alphabet
Alphabet Stock Down 3.6%
NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $167.73 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $208.70. The company has a 50-day moving average of $166.31 and a 200 day moving average of $176.41. The firm has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 18.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.01.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Alphabet Increases Dividend
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. Alphabet's payout ratio is 9.36%.
Insider Buying and Selling
In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.68, for a total transaction of $5,742,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,555,196 shares in the company, valued at $451,452,029.28. The trade was a 1.26% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. The trade was a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 228,070 shares of company stock valued at $37,745,632 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.
Alphabet Profile
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Free Report)
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.
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