Carson Advisory Inc. Buys New Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Carson Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 5,040 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $787,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Concentrum Wealth Management grew its holdings in Alphabet by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 17,328 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $3,300,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. JDM Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 10.6% during the 4th quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 593 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $113,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Kidder Stephen W grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Kidder Stephen W now owns 3,608 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $687,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Hill Island Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Hill Island Financial LLC now owns 7,776 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,481,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Providence Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Providence Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 10,102 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,992,000 after buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $220.00 price target (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Tigress Financial reissued a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Finally, Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $208.40.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,837,500.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 261,966 shares in the company, valued at $45,844,050. This trade represents a 3.85% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 6,813 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,192,275. The trade was a 8.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 215,843 shares of company stock valued at $37,288,490. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG traded up $1.24 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $185.94. 20,915,424 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 21,587,144. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $208.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company has a market cap of $2.26 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.01. The company's 50-day moving average price is $174.02 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $174.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company 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 is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 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.