Madison Wealth Partners Inc Increases Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Madison Wealth Partners Inc lifted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 4.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,111 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 96 shares during the quarter. Madison Wealth Partners Inc’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $330,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 111.8% in the 1st quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 49,037 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,181,333.08. This trade represents a 19.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.68, for a total value of $5,742,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,555,196 shares in the company, valued at approximately $451,452,029.28. The trade was a 1.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 228,070 shares of company stock worth $37,745,632. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on GOOG shares. Scotiabank decreased their target price on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $171.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Needham & Company LLC cut shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “cautious” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $204.88.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $167.73 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 18.70, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.01. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $166.31 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.41.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. 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 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.36%.

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.