Becker Capital Management Inc. Boosts Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Becker Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 26,264 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 197 shares during the period. Becker Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,002,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GOOG. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $171.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup restated a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $203.94.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $162.06 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $163.26 and its two-hundred day moving average is $177.23. The firm has a market cap of $1.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.13, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be 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 is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.52%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.51, for a total value of $3,281,671.90. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 43,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,997,521.61. This represents a 29.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 148,163 shares of company stock valued at $25,361,647. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.