Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Purchased by Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC

Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 13.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 46,375 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,546 shares during the period. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $8,173,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at $4,317,606,000. 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. Amundi grew its position in Alphabet by 11.8% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 33,403,871 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,034,992,000 after acquiring an additional 3,537,173 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Evergreen Quality Fund GP Ltd. grew its position in Alphabet by 178.3% in the first quarter. Evergreen Quality Fund GP Ltd. now owns 4,003,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $619,163,000 after acquiring an additional 2,565,400 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Trading Up 3.2%

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $244.15 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $256.00. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $227.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $189.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.95 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.00.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 8.95%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Wells Fargo & Company set a $236.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on Alphabet from $230.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Moffett Nathanson raised their target price on Alphabet from $230.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Wedbush raised their target price on Alphabet from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, DA Davidson raised their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. Four 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $247.40.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.23, for a total transaction of $6,377,475.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,494,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $489,572,657.16. The trade was a 1.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total transaction of $4,637,754.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,371,905.30. This trade represents a 35.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 276,338 shares of company stock worth $59,062,683 in the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Company 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.