Lederer & Associates Investment Counsel CA Decreases Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Lederer & Associates Investment Counsel CA trimmed its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.1% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 8,095 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 91 shares during the period. Lederer & Associates Investment Counsel CA’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,265,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on GOOG shares. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $203.94.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the company’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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly 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 legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,374 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total value of $238,347.78. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at $2,606,213.28. This trade represents a 8.38% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 164,654 shares of company stock worth $26,793,380. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $173.38 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.10 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $160.86 and a 200 day moving average of $176.45. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $208.70.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.