Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. Has $22.05 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. cut its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 144,843 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,747 shares during the period. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $22,054,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Partnership Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Equitec Proprietary Markets LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Rosenblatt Securities lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $167.86.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $157.41, for a total transaction of $3,541,725.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,303,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $362,516,961.51. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $157.41, for a total value of $3,541,725.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,303,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $362,516,961.51. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.56, for a total value of $127,648.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,991 shares in the company, valued at $1,275,043.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 123,788 shares of company stock valued at $21,143,403. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $186.61 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.31 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.62, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.83 and a twelve month high of $187.50. 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 stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $174.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $156.20.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.38. The business had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $78.75 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 15.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.17 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a — dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 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.