CHICAGO TRUST Co NA Reduces Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

CHICAGO TRUST Co NA lowered its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 35,508 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 898 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.0% of CHICAGO TRUST Co NA’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest position. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,547,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 4.2% in the first quarter. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 24,350 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,804,000 after purchasing an additional 980 shares during the last quarter. Wiser Wealth Management Inc lifted its stake in Alphabet by 6.8% in the first quarter. Wiser Wealth Management Inc now owns 1,399 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $218,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Greystone Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 29.5% in the first quarter. Greystone Financial Group LLC now owns 4,386 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $685,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the last quarter. Courier Capital LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 3.2% in the first quarter. Courier Capital LLC now owns 94,190 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,715,000 after purchasing an additional 2,931 shares during the last quarter. Finally, McDonough Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.0% in the first quarter. McDonough Capital Management Inc now owns 81,225 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,690,000 after purchasing an additional 1,573 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $174.92 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $2.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.73, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company’s 50 day moving average is $161.88 and its 200 day moving average is $176.09. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. Alphabet’s revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,587,696 shares in the company, valued at $436,570,192.16. This represents a 1.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 195,770 shares of company stock valued at $32,036,638. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on GOOG. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $204.88.

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.