Reliant Investment Management LLC Takes $249,000 Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Reliant Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 1,597 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $249,000.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Citigroup reaffirmed a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Oppenheimer lifted 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, Westpark Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $204.88.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total value of $1,962,705.76. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 49,037 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. This trade represents a 19.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 195,770 shares of company stock valued at $32,036,638. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $174.92 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.73, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $208.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $161.88 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Alphabet’s revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current 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 paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend 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.