Northeast Investment Management Sells 2,028 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Northeast Investment Management reduced its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 1.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 107,191 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 2,028 shares during the period. Northeast Investment Management's holdings in Alphabet were worth $16,746,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Rowlandmiller & PARTNERS.ADV boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3.3% in the first quarter. Rowlandmiller & PARTNERS.ADV now owns 85,350 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,334,000 after acquiring an additional 2,746 shares during the period. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 5,408 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $845,000 after acquiring an additional 335 shares during the period. CX Institutional lifted its position in Alphabet by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. CX Institutional now owns 36,201 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $5,656,000 after purchasing an additional 1,917 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 11.0% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,645,437 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $725,757,000 after purchasing an additional 458,847 shares during the period. Finally, Monarch Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Monarch Capital Management Inc. now owns 38,554 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $6,023,000 after purchasing an additional 388 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Citigroup restated a "sell" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Westpark Capital reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their target price on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $204.88.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.7%

GOOG stock traded down $1.20 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $177.59. The company had a trading volume of 9,009,142 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,419,848. The company has a 50 day moving average of $163.42 and a two-hundred day moving average of $176.21. The company has a market capitalization of $2.16 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.06, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (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 business had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. Alphabet's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. 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 0.47%. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at $2,377,014.99. This trade represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 195,570 shares of company stock valued at $32,003,532. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.