Wealth Advisory Solutions LLC Buys 15,529 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Wealth Advisory Solutions LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 496.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,654 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 15,529 shares during the quarter. Wealth Advisory Solutions LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,914,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Hutchinson Capital Management CA increased its holdings in Alphabet by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Hutchinson Capital Management CA now owns 3,555 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $677,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. now owns 15,977 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $3,043,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management increased its holdings in Alphabet by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 17,328 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $3,300,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 10.6% in the fourth quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 593 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $113,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kidder Stephen W increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Kidder Stephen W now owns 3,608 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $687,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and set a $220.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Tigress Financial restated a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Roth Capital restated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Susquehanna restated a "positive" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and six have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $207.13.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG traded up $2.61 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $181.31. The company's stock had a trading volume of 23,949,486 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,450,262. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $208.70. The stock has a market cap of $2.20 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.21, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $171.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $174.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. This is a boost 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 presently 9.36%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.87, for a total transaction of $5,553,275.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,620,196 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $447,712,890.52. This trade represents a 1.23% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of Alphabet 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 $1,837,500.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 261,966 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,844,050. The trade was a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 215,643 shares of company stock worth $36,330,928. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

About Alphabet

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.