Merit Financial Group LLC Purchases 55,775 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 27.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 262,287 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 55,775 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $46,223,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 242.9% in the first quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 168 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth $28,000. IMA Advisory Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth $28,000. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 85.7% in the 1st quarter. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC now owns 195 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet in the first quarter valued at $39,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wedbush increased 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. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Alphabet from $230.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $270.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $247.40.

Alphabet Stock Up 3.2%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $244.15 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.95 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $256.00. 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 company’s 50 day moving average price is $227.30 and its 200-day moving average price is $189.47.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th were paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.95%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.41, for a total value of $7,910,825.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,402,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $584,699,785.79. This trade represents a 1.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 953 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $241.20, for a total value of $229,863.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 17,294 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,171,312.80. This represents a 5.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 276,338 shares of company stock valued at $59,062,683 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

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.