First Citizens Financial Corp Sells 2,141 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

First Citizens Financial Corp cut its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 44.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,663 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,141 shares during the quarter. First Citizens Financial Corp’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $469,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at about $4,317,606,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,483,898,000 after purchasing an additional 15,968,487 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 307.6% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,302,644 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,593,201,000 after acquiring an additional 7,774,811 shares during the period. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,375,509,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GOOGL. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Citizens Jmp upgraded Alphabet from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, June 27th. Phillip Securities cut Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have given a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $221.44.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $200,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 6,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,383,200. This trade represents a 12.63% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.92, for a total value of $6,497,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,462,392 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $492,281,408.64. The trade was a 1.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 254,710 shares of company stock worth $49,208,380 over the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $240.80 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $242.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.91 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $201.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $177.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.95%.

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.