Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 7.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 39,542 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 2,644 shares during the period. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,178,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC raised 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 valued at $945,000 after acquiring an additional 1,400 shares in the last quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky lifted its stake in Alphabet by 10.2% in the first quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 14,907 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,329,000 after acquiring an additional 1,376 shares during the last quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 3.3% in the fourth 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. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $281,000. Finally, Fermata Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.7% in the first quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC now owns 9,771 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,527,000 after acquiring an additional 259 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GOOG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Tigress Financial reiterated a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Oppenheimer lifted their price target 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. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Three 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $204.88.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on GOOG
Insider Activity at Alphabet
In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total value of $32,380.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,613 shares in the company, valued at $1,232,544.70. This trade represents a 2.56% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total transaction of $1,962,705.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. This trade represents a 19.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 195,570 shares of company stock worth $32,003,532 in the last three months. Insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.
Alphabet Stock Performance
Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $177.94 on Tuesday. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $165.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $176.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.10, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. 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.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.
Alphabet Increases Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were given a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.
About Alphabet
(
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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