Olstein Capital Management L.P. Raises Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Olstein Capital Management L.P. boosted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 12.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 31,500 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 3,500 shares during the quarter. Olstein Capital Management L.P.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,921,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 111.8% during the first 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 in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the topic of several analyst reports. KeyCorp cut their target price on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $171.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Tigress Financial reaffirmed a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $204.88.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,837,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 261,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,844,050. This trade represents a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.71, for a total transaction of $5,483,075.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,587,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $436,570,192.16. This represents a 1.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 195,570 shares of company stock worth $32,003,532 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of GOOG stock traded down $1.61 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $177.18. 11,912,443 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,434,019. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month 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. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company's 50-day moving average price is $163.42 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.21.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted 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. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion for 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 firm's revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 9.36%.

Alphabet 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.