LS Investment Advisors LLC Trims Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

LS Investment Advisors LLC reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 1.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 158,176 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 2,989 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises approximately 3.8% of LS Investment Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 4th largest position. LS Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $24,712,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 39.3% in the fourth quarter. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,964 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $945,000 after buying an additional 1,400 shares in the last quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 16,248 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $3,094,000 after acquiring an additional 1,041 shares in the last quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC now owns 4,329 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $824,000 after acquiring an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. North Forty Two & Co. bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $281,000. Finally, jvl associates llc boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. jvl associates llc now owns 10,055 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,571,000 after purchasing an additional 343 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on GOOG. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $171.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup reiterated a "sell" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Tigress Financial reissued a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have issued 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 $204.88.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. The trade was a 4.21% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. The trade was a 1.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 195,770 shares of company stock worth $32,036,638. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock traded up $5.11 on Friday, hitting $174.92. 22,239,619 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,341,993. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $161.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of $176.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.12 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.73, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. Alphabet's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

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.