Foster Group Inc. Acquires 2,387 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Foster Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 10.3% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 25,578 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,387 shares during the quarter. Foster Group Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,955,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Fjell Capital LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 38.1% during the 1st quarter. Fjell Capital LLC now owns 14,886 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,302,000 after buying an additional 4,106 shares during the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 768.3% in the first quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 215,559 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $33,334,000 after acquiring an additional 190,733 shares during the period. Annex Advisory Services LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 13.6% during the first quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 45,786 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,080,000 after acquiring an additional 5,480 shares during the last quarter. Breakwater Capital Group lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 9.4% in the first quarter. Breakwater Capital Group now owns 9,403 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,454,000 after acquiring an additional 808 shares during the period. Finally, Retireful LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.7% in the first quarter. Retireful LLC now owns 6,377 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $984,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Wedbush set a $190.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $168.21 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.90, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $159.81 and a 200 day moving average of $174.38. 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 $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,587,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $436,570,192.16. This represents a 1.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,377,014.99. The trade was a 4.21% 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 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

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.