Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC Purchases New Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 25,450 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $4,847,000. Alphabet comprises approximately 3.9% of Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest position.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 39.3% during the 4th quarter. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,964 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $945,000 after purchasing an additional 1,400 shares in the last quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 16,248 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $3,094,000 after buying an additional 1,041 shares during the period. Harvest Investment Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC now owns 4,329 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $824,000 after acquiring an additional 138 shares in the last quarter. North Forty Two & Co. purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $281,000. Finally, SageView Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 140.6% in the fourth quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 14,734 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,806,000 after acquiring an additional 8,610 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on GOOG. Needham & Company LLC downgraded shares of Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "cautious" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Susquehanna reissued a "positive" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $203.94.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,374 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total transaction of $238,347.78. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,606,213.28. The trade was a 8.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 164,654 shares of company stock worth $26,793,380. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG traded up $0.32 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $174.30. 10,965,621 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,099,755. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $208.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.64, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company's 50 day moving average price is $160.72 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.47.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast 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 will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

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.