Flagship Private Wealth LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Flagship Private Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 224.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,146 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,870 shares during the quarter. Flagship Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $648,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,991,725 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,470,344,000 after buying an additional 3,189,592 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 104,777,092 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,894,651,000 after purchasing an additional 1,219,606 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $17,376,706,000 after purchasing an additional 5,758,244 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,873,751,000 after purchasing an additional 7,917,625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 39,148,500 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,455,571,000 after purchasing an additional 294,556 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 3.0%

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $174.92 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.73, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $142.66 and a one year high of $208.70. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $161.88 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.09. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $171.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. KeyCorp dropped their target price 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. Finally, Needham & Company LLC cut shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “cautious” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.88.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total transaction of $1,962,705.76. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. This represents a 19.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 195,770 shares of company stock worth $32,036,638 in the last three months. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.