Quilter Plc Buys 4,240 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Quilter Plc raised its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 4.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 108,532 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 4,240 shares during the quarter. Quilter Plc's holdings in Alphabet were worth $16,956,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. 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 valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company's stock, valued at $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 216,195 shares of company stock valued at $35,764,898 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on GOOG. Susquehanna restated a "positive" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 21st. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Finally, UBS Group decreased 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. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and six have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $206.38.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG traded up $3.84 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $178.27. The company had a trading volume of 73,956,281 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,984,165. The company's 50 day moving average price is $167.82 and its 200 day moving average price is $176.02. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market cap of $2.16 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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 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 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm 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. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. 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.