Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. Has $2.46 Million Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,752 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 505 shares during the quarter. Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,461,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 39.3% in the fourth quarter. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,964 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $945,000 after acquiring an additional 1,400 shares during the last quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky lifted its stake in Alphabet by 10.2% in the first quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 14,907 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,329,000 after acquiring an additional 1,376 shares during the last quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC now owns 4,329 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $824,000 after acquiring an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. North Forty Two & Co. acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $281,000. Finally, Fermata Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.7% in the first quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC now owns 9,771 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,527,000 after buying an additional 259 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $175.88 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.13 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.85, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $164.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $176.30. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 firm 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%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm 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 represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,377,014.99. The trade was a 4.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the company’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 sale, the insider now directly owns 49,037 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. The trade was a 19.35% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 195,570 shares of company stock valued at $32,003,532 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on GOOG. KeyCorp reduced their price objective 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. Westpark Capital restated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $171.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $204.88.

Alphabet Company 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.