Alpine Bank Wealth Management Makes New $3.19 Million Investment in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Alpine Bank Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 20,386 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $3,185,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC now owns 31,967 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $6,088,000 after acquiring an additional 380 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 5.6% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $22,901,000 after purchasing an additional 6,410 shares during the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $204,262,000. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 246.2% during the fourth quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,698 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,085,000 after purchasing an additional 4,052 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 506,535 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $96,465,000 after buying an additional 20,855 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GOOG. Needham & Company LLC downgraded shares of Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "cautious" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $171.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered their target price on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $204.88.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the company'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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. The trade was a 1.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 216,306 shares of company stock valued at $35,782,927. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.7%

NASDAQ GOOG traded up $2.94 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $174.43. 25,862,351 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,718,715. The firm has a market cap of $2.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.45, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $166.90 and a 200 day simple moving average of $176.24. 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 Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast 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 was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.