SJS Investment Consulting Inc. Raises Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

SJS Investment Consulting Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 371 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 0.4% of SJS Investment Consulting Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest holding. SJS Investment Consulting Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,174,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC grew its stake 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 purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $177.63 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.16 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. The company has a fifty day moving average of $162.26 and a two-hundred day moving average of $176.17.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released 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. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.36%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on GOOG. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Three investment 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, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $204.88.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 195,770 shares of company stock valued at $32,036,638 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet 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.