HWG Holdings LP Takes $58,000 Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

HWG Holdings LP purchased a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 369 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $58,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 111.8% in the first quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. 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 reduced 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. KeyCorp reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price 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. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $204.88.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,377,014.99. This trade represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 228,070 shares of company stock valued at $37,745,632 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $167.73 on Monday. The firm has a market cap 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 50 day moving average of $166.31 and a 200-day moving average of $176.41. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The company 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 company’s revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

About Alphabet

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.