Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Acquires 16,995 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI boosted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.4% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 519,374 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,995 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 1.6% of Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings, making the stock its 12th largest holding. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $80,316,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in Alphabet by 242.9% during the first quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 168 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. IMA Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 85.7% in the 1st quarter. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC now owns 195 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. JMP Securities boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Guggenheim boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $203.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $211.53.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $201.96 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $207.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.44 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $182.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $173.22.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $96,428,000 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.60 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. Equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.95%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total value of $4,637,754.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 42,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,371,905.30. This represents a 35.65% decrease in their position. The transaction 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 dated Wednesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.23, for a total transaction of $6,377,475.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,494,892 shares in the company, valued at $489,572,657.16. This represents a 1.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 274,219 shares of company stock valued at $49,674,273 over the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Alphabet

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.