Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC Raises Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 7.2% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 39,542 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,644 shares during the period. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,178,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% in the 4th quarter. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC now owns 28,044 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,341,000 after buying an additional 2,390 shares in the last quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC now owns 31,967 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,088,000 after buying an additional 380 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,901,000 after purchasing an additional 6,410 shares in the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $204,262,000. Finally, Ascent Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 246.2% in the 4th quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,698 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,085,000 after purchasing an additional 4,052 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on GOOG shares. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Westpark Capital restated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup restated a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $204.88.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.2%

GOOG opened at $177.94 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $165.19 and a 200 day moving average price of $176.43. The company has a market cap of $2.16 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm 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 revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.71, for a total value 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 $436,570,192.16. This trade represents a 1.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,192,275. This trade represents a 8.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 195,570 shares of company stock valued at $32,003,532. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet 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.