Vest Financial LLC Increases Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Vest Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 768.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 215,559 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 190,733 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $33,334,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $39,000. PayPay Securities Corp lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 36.1% in the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $49,000. Finally, Navigoe LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $51,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,837,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 261,966 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,844,050. The trade was a 3.85% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 195,770 shares of company stock worth $32,036,638. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Susquehanna reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $189.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $2.41 on Monday, hitting $176.09. 28,876,123 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 30,199,362. The business's 50 day moving average price is $160.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $174.38. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $207.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company has a market capitalization of $2.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend 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 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.