Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc Has $3.09 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 16.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,783 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 2,740 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 0.7% of Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc's investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc's holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,091,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of GOOG. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $5,166,070,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 18,562.3% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,237,733,000 after acquiring an additional 14,246,573 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $1,551,533,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $10,873,751,000 after acquiring an additional 7,917,625 shares during the period. Finally, GQG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 181,679.1% in the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 7,225,721 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,376,066,000 after acquiring an additional 7,221,746 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.71, for a total transaction of $5,483,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,587,696 shares in the company, valued at $436,570,192.16. The trade was a 1.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total value of $1,962,705.76. Following the sale, the insider now owns 49,037 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. The trade was a 19.35% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 195,770 shares of company stock worth $32,036,638 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $171.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, June 2nd. Finally, Tigress Financial restated a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $204.88.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG traded up $5.11 on Friday, reaching $174.92. 22,239,619 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,389,186. The firm has a market cap of $2.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $208.70. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $161.88 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Alphabet Company 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.