Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Holdings Boosted by Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC

Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 74,093 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,509 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 0.8% of Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest holding. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $11,576,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC grew its holdings 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 valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on GOOG shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp lowered their price target on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Scotiabank lowered 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. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Tigress Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.88.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.68, for a total transaction 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 $451,452,029.28. This represents a 1.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 228,070 shares of company stock valued at $37,745,632. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 3.6%

Alphabet 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 P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $166.31 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $176.39.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The business’s revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

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.