Steele Capital Management Inc. Acquires Shares of 10,205 Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Steele Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 10,205 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,594,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 111.8% during the first quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total transaction of $32,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 7,613 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,232,544.70. This trade represents a 2.56% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total transaction of $1,962,705.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 49,037 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. The trade was a 19.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 195,570 shares of company stock worth $32,003,532. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GOOG. Tigress Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, June 2nd. Finally, Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.88.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.6%

Alphabet stock opened at $175.88 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.13 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.85, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $164.57 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $176.30. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

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.