Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC Increases Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 211.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 117,954 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 80,135 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 0.7% of Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest holding. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $18,663,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,991,725 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $22,470,344,000 after purchasing an additional 3,189,592 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 104,777,092 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $19,894,651,000 after purchasing an additional 1,219,606 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in Alphabet by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $17,376,706,000 after purchasing an additional 5,758,244 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Alphabet by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $10,873,751,000 after purchasing an additional 7,917,625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in Alphabet by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 39,148,500 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $7,455,571,000 after purchasing an additional 294,556 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Citigroup reaffirmed a "sell" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lowered shares of Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "cautious" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $204.88.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.8%

GOOG stock traded down $3.25 during trading on Thursday, hitting $173.98. 32,365,363 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,579,241. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.40, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $166.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $176.43. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. Alphabet's revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS 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 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total value of $1,962,705.76. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. The trade was a 19.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 195,570 shares of company stock valued at $32,003,532. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

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.