Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stake Boosted by First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 4.7% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 41,599 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,854 shares during the quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,334,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wealthstar Advisors LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 9.1% in the 1st quarter. Wealthstar Advisors LLC now owns 2,650 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $403,000 after purchasing an additional 220 shares during the last quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC now owns 28,169 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,289,000 after acquiring an additional 1,937 shares during the period. Advisor Resource Council grew its position in Alphabet by 91.1% in the 1st quarter. Advisor Resource Council now owns 18,903 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,664,000 after buying an additional 9,010 shares in the last quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 27.9% during the 1st quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 40,541 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,173,000 after buying an additional 8,852 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Massachusetts Wealth Management now owns 1,790 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $273,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.4 %

GOOG stock opened at $187.39 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.15 and a quick ratio of 2.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.32 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.83 and a 52-week high of $187.62. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $176.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $157.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its 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. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. The company had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $78.75 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.17 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.6 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a — dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th were paid 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 presently 12.27%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOG has been the subject of several research reports. Rosenblatt Securities cut Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $167.86.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.41, for a total transaction of $3,541,725.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,303,011 shares in the company, valued at $362,516,961.51. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,303,011 shares in the company, valued at $362,516,961.51. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total transaction of $600,175.38. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,655.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 146,288 shares of company stock worth $25,345,053 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.