SMART Wealth LLC Makes New Investment in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

SMART Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 1,484 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $232,000.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 111.8% in the 1st quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at about $26,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on GOOG. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Scotiabank decreased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and six have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $206.38.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of GOOG stock traded up $0.46 during trading on Friday, hitting $180.22. 13,287,389 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 21,210,158. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.19 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $169.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $175.49. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change 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 0.47%. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 6,813 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,192,275. The trade was a 8.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total value of $5,801,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. The trade was a 1.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 215,643 shares of company stock valued at $36,330,928 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Company 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.