Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC Acquires Shares of 12,337 Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC bought a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 12,337 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $2,349,000. Alphabet makes up about 1.3% of Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest holding.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. LSV Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Needham & Company LLC downgraded Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "cautious" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Benchmark reiterated a "negative" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. KeyCorp lowered their target price on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Citigroup restated a "sell" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $203.94.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock traded up $4.39 on Tuesday, reaching $173.98. The company's stock had a trading volume of 24,291,303 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,134,876. The company has a market capitalization of $2.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.61, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $208.70. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $160.54 and a 200-day moving average price of $176.49. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 9.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related 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 value of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,374 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total value of $238,347.78. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,606,213.28. This trade represents a 8.38% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 164,654 shares of company stock worth $26,793,380 in the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.