Wallington Asset Management LLC Buys 121 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Wallington Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,279 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 121 shares during the quarter. Wallington Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $578,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $20,886,000 after purchasing an additional 4,110 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,826,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 10.5% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 103,870 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $16,062,000 after purchasing an additional 9,900 shares during the period. West Oak Capital LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 4.2% during the first quarter. West Oak Capital LLC now owns 3,235 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $500,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the period. Finally, Accordant Advisory Group Inc bought a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter worth $193,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GOOGL. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Alphabet from $230.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. DA Davidson lifted their target price on Alphabet from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $245.88.

Alphabet Stock Down 2.1%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $236.57 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a market cap of $2.86 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.19, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $256.00. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $226.31 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $188.66.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.44, for a total transaction of $149,664.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 5,716 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,425,799.04. The trade was a 9.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the sale, the insider owned 42,985 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. This trade represents a 29.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 276,738 shares of company stock valued at $59,135,475. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

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.