Crews Bank & Trust Sells 355 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Crews Bank & Trust lessened its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.3% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 14,870 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 355 shares during the quarter. Crews Bank & Trust’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,323,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Sterling Financial Planning Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Sterling Financial Planning Inc. now owns 1,941 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $370,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. Ethos Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC now owns 7,300 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,395,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the period. Hutchinson Capital Management CA lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Hutchinson Capital Management CA now owns 3,555 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $677,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the period. M. Kulyk & Associates LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. M. Kulyk & Associates LLC now owns 6,445 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,227,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. now owns 15,977 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,043,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $167.73 on Friday. 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 $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.70, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $166.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $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 (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,555,196 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $451,452,029.28. This represents a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,837,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 261,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,844,050. The trade was a 3.85% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 228,070 shares of company stock valued at $37,745,632 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Westpark Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.