Vista Investment Management Acquires 503 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Vista Investment Management increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 11,434 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 503 shares during the period. Vista Investment Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,164,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GOOGL. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,119,000. Optivise Advisory Services LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,035,000 after purchasing an additional 403 shares during the last quarter. Community Bank N.A. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 46,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,741,000 after purchasing an additional 2,790 shares during the last quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 30.0% during the 4th quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 61,792 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,816,000 after purchasing an additional 14,262 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Absolute Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 14.0% during the 4th quarter. Absolute Capital Management LLC now owns 2,096 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $401,000 after purchasing an additional 258 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total transaction of $5,066,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,652,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $413,555,306.40. The trade was a 1.21% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total value of $32,380.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,232,544.70. This trade represents a 2.56% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 129,744 shares of company stock valued at $20,968,366. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $166.54 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $158.20 and a 200-day moving average price of $175.00. The company has a market cap of $2.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.69, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) 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 $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.36%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Citigroup boosted their price target on Alphabet from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, DA Davidson decreased their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.75.

Alphabet 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.