D. Scott Neal Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

D. Scott Neal Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 47.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,000 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 1,778 shares during the quarter. D. Scott Neal Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $312,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $39,000. Noble Wealth Management PBC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Finally, Sellwood Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 7,813 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at $2,377,014.99. This trade represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 195,770 shares of company stock worth $32,036,638. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG traded up $2.38 on Tuesday, reaching $180.01. 32,875,878 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,446,042. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $208.70. The company has a fifty day moving average of $162.80 and a 200-day moving average of $176.20. The company has a market capitalization of $2.18 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.36, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The firm's revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 9.36%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on GOOG. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $171.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 21st. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Tigress Financial reaffirmed a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $204.88.

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.