Rockland Trust Co. Decreases Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Rockland Trust Co. decreased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 21,787 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,163 shares during the period. Rockland Trust Co.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,404,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 111.8% in the 1st quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the sale, 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were 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 directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 195,570 shares of company stock valued at $32,003,532. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. 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. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Three 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $204.88.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $176.97 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $163.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $176.27. The company has a market cap of $2.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released 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 $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 revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.36%.

About Alphabet

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.