Charles Schwab Trust Co Buys 92 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Charles Schwab Trust Co grew its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.7% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 5,351 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 92 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Trust Co’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $836,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Sterling Financial Planning Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Sterling Financial Planning Inc. now owns 1,941 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $370,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC now owns 14,423 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,747,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the period. Ethos Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 0.7% in 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 buying an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Hutchinson Capital Management CA increased its position in Alphabet by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Hutchinson Capital Management CA now owns 3,555 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $677,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. Finally, Tempus Wealth Planning LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Tempus Wealth Planning LLC now owns 3,337 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $636,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.71, for a total transaction of $5,483,075.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,587,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $436,570,192.16. The trade was a 1.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 195,770 shares of company stock valued at $32,036,638 over the last three months. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on GOOG. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $171.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Tigress Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.88.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.0%

Shares of GOOG opened at $169.39 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $161.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $176.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $142.66 and a one year high of $208.70. The company has a market capitalization of $2.06 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.04, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The company’s revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given 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 dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.