Alta Advisers Ltd Has $3.72 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Alta Advisers Ltd increased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 48.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,783 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 7,800 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 1.6% of Alta Advisers Ltd's investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. Alta Advisers Ltd's holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,716,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC now owns 31,967 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $6,088,000 after purchasing an additional 380 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $22,901,000 after buying an additional 6,410 shares during the period. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG increased its position 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 worth $96,465,000 after acquiring an additional 20,855 shares in the last quarter. Dynasty Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Dynasty Wealth Management LLC now owns 22,134 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $4,215,000 after acquiring an additional 690 shares during the period. Finally, Mills Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $271,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 owned 2,620,196 shares in the company, valued at approximately $447,712,890.52. This represents a 1.23% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 6,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,192,275. This represents a 8.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 215,643 shares of company stock worth $36,330,928 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on GOOG. Citizens Jmp raised shares of Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Susquehanna reiterated a "positive" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Westpark Capital reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and six have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $206.38.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.3%

GOOG traded up $0.46 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $180.22. 13,287,389 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 21,182,530. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The company has a market cap of $2.19 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.01. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $169.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $175.84. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $142.66 and a one year high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. Alphabet's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. This is an increase 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 is presently 9.36%.

Alphabet Company 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.