Fortis Group Advisors LLC Makes New $332,000 Investment in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Fortis Group Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 2,123 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $332,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,991,725 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,470,344,000 after acquiring an additional 3,189,592 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 104,777,092 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,894,651,000 after acquiring an additional 1,219,606 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its stake in Alphabet by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $17,376,706,000 after buying an additional 5,758,244 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Alphabet by 16.1% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,873,751,000 after buying an additional 7,917,625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in Alphabet by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 39,148,500 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,455,571,000 after purchasing an additional 294,556 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup reissued a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. KeyCorp cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Lake Street Capital restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, June 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $208.40.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $184.70 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.24 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $173.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.75. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm 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 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.98, for a total value of $72,792.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 6,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,094,245.74. This trade represents a 6.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,575,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 255,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,695,000. This represents a 3.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 215,843 shares of company stock valued at $37,288,490 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.