First Interstate Bank Increases Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

First Interstate Bank increased its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,833 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 247 shares during the quarter. First Interstate Bank’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,245,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Tandem Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at $25,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. HWG Holdings LP bought a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter valued at $26,000. Equitec Proprietary Markets LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Buck Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at $32,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,303,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $362,516,961.51. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.49, for a total transaction of $93,086.18. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 28,602 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,903,886.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,303,011 shares in the company, valued at approximately $362,516,961.51. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 251,339 shares of company stock valued at $36,377,482 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Raymond James increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. 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. Finally, Susquehanna increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $159.86.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.4 %

GOOG stock opened at $157.46 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $103.27 and a 12 month high of $161.70. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $147.35 and its 200 day moving average is $141.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $85.28 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 24.01% and a return on equity of 27.22%. The firm’s revenue was up 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.05 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 EPS for the current year.

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.