Vicus Capital Has $929,000 Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Vicus Capital lowered its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 4.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,949 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 293 shares during the quarter. Vicus Capital’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $929,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. AA Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 12.0% in the 1st quarter. AA Financial Advisors LLC now owns 8,553 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,336,000 after buying an additional 919 shares in the last quarter. Inscription Capital LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet in the first quarter worth approximately $9,552,000. Louisbourg Investments Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.7% during the 1st quarter. Louisbourg Investments Inc. now owns 58,578 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,152,000 after purchasing an additional 4,710 shares during the last quarter. Signature Wealth Management Group raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Signature Wealth Management Group now owns 11,391 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,780,000 after purchasing an additional 440 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Community Trust & Investment Co. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Community Trust & Investment Co. now owns 405,288 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $63,318,000 after purchasing an additional 2,828 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on GOOG. Needham & Company LLC lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “cautious” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Scotiabank cut their price objective on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 21st. UBS Group decreased their target price on Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Citigroup reiterated a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.88.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of GOOG opened at $177.94 on Tuesday. 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 company has a 50-day simple moving average of $165.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $176.43. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.16 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total value of $1,962,705.76. Following the sale, the insider now owns 49,037 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,181,333.08. The trade was a 19.35% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 195,570 shares of company stock worth $32,003,532 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.