First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. reduced its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 1.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 174,903 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 2,233 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 0.5% of First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.'s holdings, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $27,047,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Wealth Group Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 1,582 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $299,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. Capital & Planning LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 34.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital & Planning LLC now owns 4,383 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $830,000 after purchasing an additional 1,119 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 50,132 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $9,490,000 after purchasing an additional 371 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $20,886,000 after buying an additional 4,110 shares during the period. Finally, Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $154,716,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Tigress Financial increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $189.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. UBS Group set a $195.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp upped their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price objective on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four 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 price target of $199.75.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on GOOGL
Alphabet Price Performance
Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $173.68 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.11 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $160.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $174.38. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $207.05.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - 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, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.
Alphabet Increases Dividend
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet's payout ratio is 9.36%.
Insider Activity at Alphabet
In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,837,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 261,966 shares of the company's stock, valued at $45,844,050. This represents a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. This trade represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 195,770 shares of company stock worth $32,036,638. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.
About Alphabet
(
Free Report)
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.
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