World Equity Group Inc. Raises Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

World Equity Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,213 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 444 shares during the period. World Equity Group Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,485,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,991,725 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,470,344,000 after purchasing an additional 3,189,592 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 104,777,092 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,894,651,000 after purchasing an additional 1,219,606 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $17,376,706,000 after purchasing an additional 5,758,244 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,873,751,000 after acquiring an additional 7,917,625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings 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 valued at $7,455,571,000 after acquiring an additional 294,556 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.68, for a total value of $5,742,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,555,196 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $451,452,029.28. The trade was a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total transaction of $1,962,705.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at $8,181,333.08. This represents a 19.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 228,070 shares of company stock valued at $37,745,632. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $167.73 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.70, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.01. The company’s 50 day moving average is $166.31 and its 200 day moving average is $176.39. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The business 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 earned $1.89 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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. Citigroup reaffirmed a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $171.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Three research 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 presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.88.

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.