Prairie Sky Financial Group LLC Acquires 1,562 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Prairie Sky Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 74.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,672 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 1,562 shares during the quarter. Prairie Sky Financial Group LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $568,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. PayPay Securities Corp boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 36.1% in the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $49,000. Navigoe LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $51,000. Finally, Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $53,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business'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 owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. The trade was a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was 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. This trade represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 195,570 shares of company stock worth $32,003,532. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $178.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. UBS Group set a $195.00 target price on Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $189.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Bank of America increased their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock traded down $1.24 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $176.11. The company had a trading volume of 9,794,004 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,313,510. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The firm's fifty day moving average is $161.71 and its 200 day moving average is $174.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.88, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 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.