Covington Investment Advisors Inc. Purchases 8,280 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Key Points

• Covington Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet Inc. by 3.7%, now holding 233,535 shares valued at approximately $36.5 million, making it the firm's largest investment.
• Several large investors, including GAMMA Investing LLC and JPMorgan Chase & Co., significantly increased their holdings in Alphabet during the first quarter, highlighting growing institutional interest.
• Alphabet announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, representing an annualized yield of 0.4%, set to be paid on September 15th to investors of record as of September 8th.

Covington Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 3.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 233,535 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 8,280 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 5.6% of Covington Investment Advisors Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. Covington Investment Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $36,485,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 18,562.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,237,733,000 after purchasing an additional 14,246,573 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $64,299,725,000 after purchasing an additional 9,687,855 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $10,873,751,000 after purchasing an additional 7,917,625 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $17,376,706,000 after purchasing an additional 5,758,244 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG traded up $2.53 on Tuesday, hitting $204.16. The company had a trading volume of 19,846,441 shares, compared to its average volume of 24,088,352. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $208.70. The business has a 50 day moving average of $182.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $174.34. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.47 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.74, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 8.95%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total value of $200,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 6,916 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,383,200. The trade was a 12.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 15,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $2,786,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 240,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,656,704. This trade represents a 5.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 274,219 shares of company stock worth $49,674,273 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOG has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Tigress Financial reaffirmed a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Pivotal Research lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $171.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $215.19.

About Alphabet

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.