Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Bought by Lafayette Investments Inc.

Lafayette Investments Inc. grew its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 71,399 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 860 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 2.4% of Lafayette Investments Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position. Lafayette Investments Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $11,155,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 111.8% in the 1st 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 acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on GOOG. Citigroup reissued a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. 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 five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $204.88.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.2%

Alphabet stock opened at $178.27 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $167.82 and a 200-day moving average of $176.17. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $142.66 and a one year high of $208.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The company has a market cap of $2.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 261,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,844,050. The trade was a 3.85% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.68, for a total transaction of $5,742,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,555,196 shares in the company, valued at approximately $451,452,029.28. This represents a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 216,195 shares of company stock valued at $35,764,898. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.