Benin Management CORP Buys 2,768 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Benin Management CORP boosted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 9.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 32,477 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,768 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 1.4% of Benin Management CORP’s holdings, making the stock its 12th biggest position. Benin Management CORP’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,074,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,991,725 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,470,344,000 after purchasing an additional 3,189,592 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 104,777,092 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,894,651,000 after buying an additional 1,219,606 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its stake in Alphabet by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $17,376,706,000 after acquiring an additional 5,758,244 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,873,751,000 after purchasing an additional 7,917,625 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 39,148,500 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,455,571,000 after acquiring an additional 294,556 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,837,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 261,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,844,050. This trade represents a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 163,270 shares of company stock valued at $26,553,563. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of GOOG opened at $167.71 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $208.70. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $161.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $176.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. 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 0.50%. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on GOOG shares. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday. KeyCorp lowered their price target on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Tigress Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.88.

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.