Wesbanco Bank Inc. Sells 1,864 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Wesbanco Bank Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 78,788 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,864 shares during the period. Wesbanco Bank Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $12,309,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 111.8% during the 1st quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Trading Up 3.0%

Alphabet stock opened at $174.92 on Monday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $208.70. The company has a market capitalization of $2.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $161.88 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $176.09. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GOOG. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Citigroup reaffirmed a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.88.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 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 $105,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,192,275. This represents a 8.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 195,770 shares of company stock worth $32,036,638 over the last 90 days. 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.