Massachusetts Wealth Management Purchases 270 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Massachusetts Wealth Management lifted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,246 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 270 shares during the quarter. Massachusetts Wealth Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,132,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Sterling Financial Planning Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Sterling Financial Planning Inc. now owns 1,941 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $370,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Ethos Financial Group LLC increased its stake 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 period. Hutchinson Capital Management CA increased its stake 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 valued at $677,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. M. Kulyk & Associates LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. M. Kulyk & Associates LLC now owns 6,445 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,227,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. now owns 15,977 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,043,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on GOOG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded 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 on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and set a $171.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Three equities research 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $204.88.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $175.88 on Friday. 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 fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $164.57 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $176.34. The company has a market cap of $2.13 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider now owns 49,037 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. This represents a 19.35% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 195,570 shares of company stock valued at $32,003,532 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.