Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH Sells 1,534 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 72,726 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,534 shares during the quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $11,246,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,025,322,000 after buying an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,483,898,000 after buying an additional 15,968,487 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Alphabet by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,178,470,000 after buying an additional 10,135,430 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Alphabet by 16.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,635,878,000 after buying an additional 10,037,685 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.6%

GOOGL opened at $174.67 on Friday. 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 stock’s 50 day moving average price is $162.89 and its 200-day moving average price is $174.61. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $207.05. The stock has a market cap of $2.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.70, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid 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 dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,587,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $436,570,192.16. The trade was a 1.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $105,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,192,275. This represents a 8.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 195,570 shares of company stock worth $32,003,532. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Truist Financial cut their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Westpark Capital restated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. UBS Group set a $195.00 price objective on Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.75.

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.