Vishria Bird Financial Group LLC Acquires 200 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Vishria Bird Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,199 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 0.7% of Vishria Bird Financial Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest holding. Vishria Bird Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,062,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. LSV Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 111.8% in the first quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter valued at $26,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $39,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $179.76 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market cap of $2.18 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $169.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of $175.84. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The company’s revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,575,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 255,400 shares in the company, valued at $44,695,000. This represents a 3.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.68, for a total value of $5,742,100.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,555,196 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $451,452,029.28. The trade was a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 183,143 shares of company stock valued at $30,529,028 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on GOOG shares. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Scotiabank reduced their price target on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 21st. Needham & Company LLC cut Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “cautious” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $171.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and six have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $206.38.

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.