Focus Financial Network Inc. Grows Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Focus Financial Network Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 21,376 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 760 shares during the period. Focus Financial Network Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,340,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 111.8% during the 1st quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $430,917,877.76. The trade was a 1.18% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 195,570 shares of company stock worth $32,003,532. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 21st. UBS Group cut their price objective on Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 11th. KeyCorp decreased their target price on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.88.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.7%

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $178.79 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.17 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.21, 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. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $208.70. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $163.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $176.21.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued 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 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 quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. 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.