North Star Investment Management Corp. Has $4.89 Million Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

North Star Investment Management Corp. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 32,122 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 147 shares during the quarter. North Star Investment Management Corp.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,891,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Partnership Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Equitec Proprietary Markets LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock traded up $4.54 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $191.93. The stock had a trading volume of 14,259,414 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,007,219. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.83 and a 12 month high of $192.26. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $176.58 and its 200 day moving average price is $157.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a — dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders 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 12.27%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.67, for a total value of $113,668.94. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,880,764.28. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.67, for a total value of $113,668.94. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,880,764.28. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.56, for a total value of $127,648.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,991 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,275,043.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 146,288 shares of company stock valued at $25,345,053. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $167.86.

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.