Simon Quick Advisors LLC Increases Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Simon Quick Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 19.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 49,504 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 8,222 shares during the period. Simon Quick Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,734,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 9.3% during the fourth quarter. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC now owns 28,044 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $5,341,000 after buying an additional 2,390 shares during the last quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC now owns 31,967 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $6,088,000 after acquiring an additional 380 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $22,901,000 after acquiring an additional 6,410 shares during the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $204,262,000. Finally, Ascent Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 246.2% in the fourth quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,698 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,085,000 after purchasing an additional 4,052 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG traded down $0.52 on Friday, reaching $176.45. The company had a trading volume of 13,534,646 shares, compared to its average volume of 23,062,027. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.92, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. 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 Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $208.70. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $163.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $176.27.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total transaction of $1,962,705.76. Following the sale, the insider now owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. The trade was a 19.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 2,587,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $436,570,192.16. The trade was a 1.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 195,570 shares of company stock valued at $32,003,532. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on GOOG shares. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Needham & Company LLC lowered Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "cautious" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $204.88.

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.