Northwest Investment Counselors LLC Increases Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Northwest Investment Counselors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 44,714 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 1.7% of Northwest Investment Counselors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,808,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Partnership Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Equitec Proprietary Markets LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $28,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $165.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.67, for a total transaction of $3,502,575.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,325,513 shares in the company, valued at approximately $362,012,608.71. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.67, for a total transaction of $3,502,575.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,325,513 shares in the company, valued at $362,012,608.71. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 12,084 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.19, for a total value of $1,826,979.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 48,717 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,365,523.23. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 158,458 shares of company stock worth $26,375,053 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of GOOG opened at $180.79 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.23 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The company’s fifty day moving average is $172.10 and its two-hundred day moving average is $154.41. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.83 and a fifty-two week high of $182.51.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.38. The firm had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $78.75 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.17 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a — dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.27%.

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.