Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stake Boosted by NorthRock Partners LLC

NorthRock Partners LLC raised its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 356.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 63,776 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 49,810 shares during the quarter. NorthRock Partners LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $12,145,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Susquehanna restated a "positive" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Tigress Financial restated a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upgraded 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 assigned a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $203.94.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total transaction of $5,066,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,652,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $413,555,306.40. The trade was a 1.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 2,824 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total value of $529,302.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at $2,815,948.32. This represents a 15.82% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 179,324 shares of company stock valued at $30,153,353 over the last three months. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG traded up $2.03 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $167.43. 35,833,672 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 19,720,959. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $160.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $176.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The company has a market cap of $2.03 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.80, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

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 for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The company's revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate 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. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. 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.