New Century Financial Group LLC Acquires Shares of 2,098 Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

New Century Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 2,098 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $385,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 15.3% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 8,370 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,180,000 after acquiring an additional 1,113 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Sarl grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Sarl now owns 273,256 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $38,510,000 after purchasing an additional 24,610 shares during the period. 360 Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $289,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 134.0% during the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 751,090 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $105,851,000 after purchasing an additional 430,174 shares during the period. Finally, Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 28.3% during the fourth quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 404,285 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $56,976,000 after purchasing an additional 89,284 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at $50,765,346. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,765,346. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.84, for a total value of $4,113,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,204,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $403,141,173.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 193,725 shares of company stock worth $31,933,031. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.7 %

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $168.42 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08. The company has a market cap of $2.08 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.83, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $121.46 and a 52-week high of $193.31. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $163.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $168.51.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.44 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 12.27%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on GOOG shares. Rosenblatt Securities cut Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Pivotal Research started coverage on Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $215.00 price objective for the company. Wolfe Research raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Oppenheimer lowered their price target on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $183.75.

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.