Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is Sterling Investment Management LLC’s 7th Largest Position

Sterling Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 6.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 27,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,721 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 3.0% of Sterling Investment Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Sterling Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,270,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC increased 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 acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. 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. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GOOG. Scotiabank cut their price target 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. Tigress Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Finally, Westpark Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.88.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value 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 $45,844,050. The trade was a 3.85% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 195,570 shares of company stock valued at $32,003,532 in the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $178.79 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $163.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $176.21. 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 has a market capitalization of $2.17 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.21, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month 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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion during 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%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s 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.