Stonegate Investment Group LLC Acquires 1,998 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Stonegate Investment Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 10.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 20,517 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 1,998 shares during the quarter. Stonegate Investment Group LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,205,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 39.3% during the fourth quarter. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,964 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $945,000 after purchasing an additional 1,400 shares during the period. Independence Bank of Kentucky boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 10.2% during the first quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 14,907 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,329,000 after purchasing an additional 1,376 shares in the last quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC now owns 4,329 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $824,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares in the last quarter. North Forty Two & Co. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $281,000. Finally, Fermata Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC now owns 9,771 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,527,000 after buying an additional 259 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at $8,181,333.08. This represents a 19.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 228,070 shares of company stock valued at $37,745,632. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 3.6%

Alphabet stock opened at $167.73 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.70, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $166.31 and a 200-day moving average of $176.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $142.66 and a one year 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 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 9.36%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on GOOG shares. Rosenblatt Securities raised Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Needham & Company LLC lowered Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "cautious" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Tigress Financial reissued a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price 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.

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