Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Bought by Merit Financial Group LLC

Merit Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 7.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 129,839 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 9,539 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $20,285,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Affiance Financial LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Affiance Financial LLC now owns 14,478 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,262,000 after acquiring an additional 201 shares during the period. Paladin Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.0% during the first quarter. Paladin Wealth LLC now owns 13,367 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,088,000 after purchasing an additional 761 shares in the last quarter. Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.9% during the first quarter. Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,800 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $281,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Inspirion Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.8% in the first quarter. Inspirion Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 14,351 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,242,000 after acquiring an additional 256 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gradient Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.4% during the first quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 479,481 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $74,909,000 after acquiring an additional 41,133 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GOOG. Needham & Company LLC downgraded Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "cautious" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Benchmark restated a "negative" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $204.88.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of GOOG stock traded up $0.42 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $169.81. The stock had a trading volume of 24,698,959 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,311,511. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $208.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The firm's 50-day moving average is $161.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.06 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total transaction of $1,962,705.76. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. This represents a 19.35% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 195,770 shares of company stock worth $32,036,638. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

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.