Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Bought by Apexium Financial LP

Apexium Financial LP increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 59,989 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 179 shares during the quarter. Apexium Financial LP’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $10,572,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 2.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after acquiring an additional 14,307,345 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 11.4% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 43,865,520 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,783,364,000 after acquiring an additional 4,473,901 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Alphabet by 1.4% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 43,648,514 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,749,806,000 after acquiring an additional 593,345 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG grew its position in Alphabet by 1.9% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 39,792,300 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,153,481,000 after acquiring an additional 727,335 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 0.3% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 38,556,577 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,962,389,000 after acquiring an additional 104,859 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Guggenheim increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. BMO Capital Markets set a $294.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Morgan Stanley set a $270.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $245.88.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $236.57 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $256.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $226.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $188.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.86 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th were given a $0.21 dividend. 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 Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.44, for a total value of $149,664.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 5,716 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,425,799.04. This trade represents a 9.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 953 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.20, for a total value of $229,863.60. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,294 shares in the company, valued at $4,171,312.80. This trade represents a 5.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 three months. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.