Salem Investment Counselors Inc. Has $77.96 Million Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Salem Investment Counselors Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 499,019 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,235 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 2.7% of Salem Investment Counselors Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Salem Investment Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $77,962,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Sterling Financial Planning Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Sterling Financial Planning Inc. now owns 1,941 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $370,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC now owns 7,300 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,395,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Hutchinson Capital Management CA increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Hutchinson Capital Management CA now owns 3,555 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $677,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M. Kulyk & Associates LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. M. Kulyk & Associates LLC now owns 6,445 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,227,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Westpark Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $204.88.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $176.97 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company has a market capitalization of $2.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $163.98 and a 200 day moving average of $176.27. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. 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 9.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total value of $1,962,705.76. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at $8,181,333.08. This trade represents a 19.35% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 2,587,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $436,570,192.16. This represents a 1.24% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 195,570 shares of company stock valued at $32,003,532. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Company 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.