First Community Trust NA Buys 175 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

First Community Trust NA grew its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.4% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 12,880 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 175 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 1.8% of First Community Trust NA’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. First Community Trust NA’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,012,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 39.3% during the 4th quarter. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,964 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $945,000 after purchasing an additional 1,400 shares in the last quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 16,248 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,094,000 after purchasing an additional 1,041 shares in the last quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC now owns 4,329 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $824,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares in the last quarter. North Forty Two & Co. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $281,000. Finally, jvl associates llc increased its stake in Alphabet by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. jvl associates llc now owns 10,055 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,571,000 after purchasing an additional 343 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,374 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total value of $238,347.78. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,606,213.28. This represents a 8.38% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 164,533 shares of company stock valued at $26,772,774. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the subject of a number of research reports. Tigress Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup reissued a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $203.94.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.2%

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $170.87 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.07 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.23, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. 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 Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $208.70. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $160.88 and a 200-day moving average of $176.30.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released 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 company had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. 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 presently 9.36%.

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.