Fermata Advisors LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Fermata Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 9,771 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 259 shares during the quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,527,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 10.9% in the 1st quarter. Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC now owns 1,522 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $238,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Channel Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. Channel Wealth LLC now owns 46,622 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,284,000 after acquiring an additional 1,897 shares in the last quarter. Park Edge Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Park Edge Advisors LLC now owns 7,142 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,116,000 after acquiring an additional 169 shares in the last quarter. Long Run Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 19.3% during the 1st quarter. Long Run Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 23,807 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,719,000 after acquiring an additional 3,847 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TruWealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. TruWealth Advisors LLC now owns 205,357 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $32,083,000 after acquiring an additional 4,728 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.0%

Alphabet stock opened at $169.39 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $161.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $176.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $142.66 and a one year high of $208.70. The stock has a market cap of $2.06 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. Alphabet’s revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal 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 of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.71, for a total transaction of $5,483,075.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,587,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $436,570,192.16. This trade represents a 1.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,837,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 261,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,844,050. This represents a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 195,770 shares of company stock valued at $32,036,638. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on GOOG. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Westpark Capital restated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp decreased their target price 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. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Citigroup restated a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three research 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $204.88.

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.