Verity & Verity LLC Has $524,000 Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Verity & Verity LLC lowered its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,351 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 75 shares during the period. Verity & Verity LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $524,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions 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 valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the topic of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 11th. Westpark Capital restated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.88.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,837,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 261,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,844,050. This trade represents a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 195,570 shares of company stock valued at $32,003,532 in the last three months. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $176.97 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $208.70. 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 company has a 50-day simple moving average of $163.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $176.27. The company has a market capitalization of $2.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.98, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) 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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced 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 an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.