Hills Bank & Trust Co Cuts Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Hills Bank & Trust Co trimmed its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,417 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 129 shares during the quarter. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $683,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Skylands Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 19.6% during the 1st quarter. Skylands Capital LLC now owns 185,885 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $28,745,000 after purchasing an additional 30,460 shares during the period. Emerald Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 14.2% during the 1st quarter. Emerald Advisors LLC now owns 5,002 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $774,000 after purchasing an additional 622 shares during the period. Financial Insights Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.2% during the 1st quarter. Financial Insights Inc. now owns 3,316 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $513,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the period. Root Financial Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 50.3% during the 1st quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 24,652 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,820,000 after purchasing an additional 8,246 shares during the period. Finally, Sovran Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 77.2% during the 1st quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 13,619 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,059,000 after purchasing an additional 5,933 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $179.08 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.17 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.96, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a 50-day moving average of $168.70 and a 200-day moving average of $173.97.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,837,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 261,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,844,050. This represents a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.87, for a total value of $5,553,275.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,620,196 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $447,712,890.52. This represents a 1.23% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 215,643 shares of company stock valued at $36,330,928. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on GOOGL. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. BNP Paribas Exane reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $172.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, June 27th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $171.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, June 25th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.95.

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.