First Citizens Financial Corp Sells 2,141 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• First Citizens Financial Corp reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. by 44.6%, selling 2,141 shares and holding a total of 2,663 shares worth approximately $469,000 by the end of the second quarter.
• Several institutional investors, including Nuveen LLC and Vanguard Group Inc., have significantly increased their positions in Alphabet, with Vanguard now owning over 509 million shares valued at nearly $79 billion.
• Alphabet reported $2.31 EPS for the last quarter, exceeding analysts' estimates, and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, with a payout ratio of 8.95%.

First Citizens Financial Corp lowered its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 44.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,663 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 2,141 shares during the quarter. First Citizens Financial Corp's holdings in Alphabet were worth $469,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the first quarter worth $4,317,606,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,483,898,000 after purchasing an additional 15,968,487 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 2.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $78,839,544,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in Alphabet by 307.6% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,302,644 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,593,201,000 after purchasing an additional 7,774,811 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $1,375,509,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total value of $4,637,754.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,999 shares in the company, valued at $8,371,905.30. This represents a 35.65% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the company'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 $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at $45,213,984. This represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 254,710 shares of company stock valued at $49,208,380 over the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $240.80 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $242.25. The firm has a market cap of $2.91 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.64, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.01. The business's fifty day moving average is $201.89 and its 200 day moving average is $177.51.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The company had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. Research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.95%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Truist Financial reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. JMP Securities upped their price target on Alphabet from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $218.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have assigned a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $221.44.

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.

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