Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. Grows Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 4.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 109,214 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,157 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 4.0% of Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $17,063,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at $4,303,000. Florida Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 7.4% in the first quarter. Florida Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,346 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $523,000 after acquiring an additional 231 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 4.1% in the first quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 167,716 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,202,000 after acquiring an additional 6,669 shares in the last quarter. Weatherly Asset Management L. P. grew its position in Alphabet by 0.3% in the first quarter. Weatherly Asset Management L. P. now owns 27,166 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,244,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ELCO Management Co. LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 0.4% during the first quarter. ELCO Management Co. LLC now owns 28,121 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,393,000 after buying an additional 106 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $171.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Tigress Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and six have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $207.13.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,837,500.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 261,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,844,050. The trade was a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total transaction of $5,801,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. This trade represents a 1.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 215,443 shares of company stock valued at $36,298,548 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $181.31 on Monday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $171.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $174.76. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company has a market capitalization of $2.20 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $208.70.

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 the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.