Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Acquired by WestEnd Advisors LLC

WestEnd Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 58.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 61 shares during the period. WestEnd Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $29,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GOOG. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,901,000 after acquiring an additional 6,410 shares in the last quarter. Revisor Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 107.9% during the 1st quarter. Revisor Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,659 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $572,000 after acquiring an additional 1,899 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 19.5% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 91,681 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,323,000 after acquiring an additional 14,931 shares in the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.3% during the 1st quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 2,653,344 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $414,532,000 after acquiring an additional 157,481 shares in the last quarter. Finally, May Barnhard Investments LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 5.5% in the first quarter. May Barnhard Investments LLC now owns 5,188 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $811,000 after buying an additional 269 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on GOOG shares. KeyCorp set a $265.00 target price on Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. TD Cowen increased their target price on Alphabet from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Alphabet from $230.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. BNP Paribas lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $241.00.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.9%

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $237.49 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $256.70. The stock has a market cap of $2.87 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.29, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a fifty day moving average of $226.97 and a 200-day moving average of $189.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The company had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.67 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.95%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total value of $5,992,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,527,392 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $466,000,536.96. This trade represents a 1.27% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 276,738 shares of company stock valued at $59,135,475 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.