Vest Financial LLC Acquires 14,757 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Vest Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 73.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 34,978 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 14,757 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,465,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $39,000. Noble Wealth Management PBC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. Finally, FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 287.9% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 225 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Needham & Company LLC downgraded Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "cautious" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group dropped their price target on Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. KeyCorp dropped their price target on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Citigroup reaffirmed a "sell" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Westpark Capital reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $204.88.

Alphabet Trading Up 3.0%

Shares of Alphabet stock traded up $5.11 on Friday, hitting $174.92. The stock had a trading volume of 22,239,619 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,389,186. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $161.88 and a 200 day moving average of $176.05. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $208.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.12 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.73, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released 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 company had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. 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. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total transaction of $1,962,705.76. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 49,037 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. This represents a 19.35% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,587,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $436,570,192.16. This represents a 1.24% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 195,770 shares of company stock valued at $32,036,638. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.