Bard Financial Services Inc. Sells 1,855 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Bard Financial Services Inc. trimmed its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 4.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 43,590 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 1,855 shares during the period. Bard Financial Services Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,810,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 39.3% during the fourth quarter. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,964 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $945,000 after acquiring an additional 1,400 shares in the last quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky raised its position in Alphabet by 10.2% in the 1st quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 14,907 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,329,000 after purchasing an additional 1,376 shares during the period. 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 purchasing an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. North Forty Two & Co. bought a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $281,000. Finally, Fermata Advisors LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 2.7% during the first quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC now owns 9,771 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,527,000 after buying an additional 259 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $171.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 21st. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note 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 cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $204.88.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock traded down $1.20 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $177.59. The stock had a trading volume of 9,009,142 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,419,848. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $142.66 and a one year high of $208.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.16 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The firm's 50 day moving average is $163.42 and its 200 day moving average is $176.21.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. The trade was a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total value of $5,066,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,652,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $413,555,306.40. The trade was a 1.21% 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 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.