Viewpoint Investment Partners Corp Purchases Shares of 2,345 Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Viewpoint Investment Partners Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 2,345 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $366,000. Alphabet makes up 0.2% of Viewpoint Investment Partners Corp’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest position.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% in the 4th quarter. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC now owns 28,044 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,341,000 after acquiring an additional 2,390 shares in the last quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC now owns 31,967 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,088,000 after acquiring an additional 380 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,901,000 after acquiring an additional 6,410 shares in the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $204,262,000. Finally, Ascent Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 246.2% in the 4th quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,698 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,085,000 after acquiring an additional 4,052 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the 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 sale, 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. The trade was a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 195,570 shares of company stock valued at $32,003,532 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Westpark Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lowered shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “cautious” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $204.88.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $175.88 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.13 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $164.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $176.30.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The company’s revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 9.36%.

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.