Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Acquired by Advisory Resource Group

Advisory Resource Group lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,643 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 456 shares during the period. Advisory Resource Group’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,533,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GOOG. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 580,897.4% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $23,963,208,000 after purchasing an additional 135,064,454 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $2,622,943,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 2.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $64,299,725,000 after acquiring an additional 9,687,855 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Alphabet by 9.9% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,971,861,000 after acquiring an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at about $369,713,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on GOOG. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Alphabet from $300.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Mizuho set a $325.00 target price on Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Pivotal Research increased their price target on Alphabet from $300.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $330.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.81.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOG stock opened at $276.98 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $292.36. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $257.84 and a two-hundred day moving average of $209.48. The company has a market capitalization of $3.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%.The business had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.12 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 8.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $291.80, for a total value of $32,681.60. Following the sale, the director owned 18,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,253,567.20. This trade represents a 0.62% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.92, for a total value of $145,752.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 5,116 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,242,778.72. This represents a 10.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 221,796 shares of company stock valued at $53,983,001 in the last quarter. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.