Ledyard National Bank Trims Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Ledyard National Bank lowered its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 7.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 37,132 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 3,080 shares during the quarter. Ledyard National Bank's holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,801,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 111.8% in the 1st quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. The trade was a 4.21% 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, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. The trade was a 1.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 216,306 shares of company stock worth $35,782,927 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Westpark Capital restated a "buy" rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $204.88.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG stock traded up $2.94 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $174.43. The company's stock had a trading volume of 25,862,351 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,718,813. 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 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $208.70. The company has a 50 day moving average of $166.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $176.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion during 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 for the quarter was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 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.