BG Investment Services Inc. Buys New Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Key Points

• BG Investment Services Inc. has invested approximately $269,000 in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by acquiring 1,741 shares in the first quarter of the year.
• Alphabet recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, which will be paid out on September 15th, representing an annualized yield of 0.43%.
• Insider transactions included CEO Sundar Pichai selling 32,500 shares at an average price of $184.38, reducing his ownership by 1.27%.

BG Investment Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,741 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $269,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Mystic Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.7% during the 1st quarter. Mystic Asset Management Inc. now owns 28,454 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $4,400,000 after buying an additional 1,791 shares during the period. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co now owns 27,075 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $4,187,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the period. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,119,000. Cypress Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. Cypress Capital LLC now owns 14,310 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,213,000 after buying an additional 563 shares during the period. Finally, Optivise Advisory Services LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,035,000 after buying an additional 403 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock traded down $2.77 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $189.13. 34,777,882 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 38,669,572. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $178.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $172.96. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05. The stock has a market cap of $2.30 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.95%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $217.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Mizuho cut their target price on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Westpark Capital boosted their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $211.39.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 243,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total value of $5,992,350.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,527,392 shares of the company's stock, valued at $466,000,536.96. This represents a 1.27% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 249,399 shares of company stock valued at $43,525,794. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.