Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Stock Position Boosted by Geneos Wealth Management Inc.

Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 14.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 87,857 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 10,955 shares during the quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $15,585,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. V2 Financial group LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.0% during the second quarter. V2 Financial group LLC now owns 4,474 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $794,000 after acquiring an additional 129 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 23.1% in the second quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 253,957 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $45,049,000 after purchasing an additional 47,603 shares during the period. Wellington Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at $575,000. Rexford Capital Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,156,000. Finally, Goodman Advisory Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 911.1% in the 2nd quarter. Goodman Advisory Group LLC now owns 2,103 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $373,000 after buying an additional 1,895 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.15, for a total transaction of $8,129,875.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,369,619 shares in the company, valued at approximately $592,760,192.85. This trade represents a 1.35% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. This trade represents a 29.30% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 228,906 shares of company stock valued at $62,127,158. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $310.52 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $328.67. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $283.75 and its 200-day simple moving average is $230.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The company has a market cap of $3.75 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.12 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GOOG. Scotiabank set a $336.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Mizuho set a $325.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $313.04.

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.