Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt Sells 1,000 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.6% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 37,111 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,000 shares during the quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,793,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOG. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC boosted 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 during the period. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of GOOG opened at $177.63 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.07, a PEG 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 stock has a fifty day moving average of $162.26 and a 200-day moving average of $176.17. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 business 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 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value 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 $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total value of $1,962,705.76. Following the sale, the insider now owns 49,037 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. The trade was a 19.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 195,770 shares of company stock worth $32,036,638 over the last three months. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Scotiabank cut their target price on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Citigroup restated a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $204.88.

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.