Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Stake Raised by EP Wealth Advisors LLC

EP Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,086,726 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 41,305 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 1.3% of EP Wealth Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest holding. EP Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $191,514,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 17.9% during the first quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 88,187 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,637,000 after purchasing an additional 13,371 shares during the period. Alaethes Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Alaethes Wealth LLC now owns 7,646 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,182,000 after buying an additional 84 shares during the period. Moment Partners LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 9.3% in the 2nd quarter. Moment Partners LLC now owns 5,896 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,039,000 after buying an additional 504 shares during the last quarter. Welch Group LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 64,262 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,325,000 after buying an additional 2,467 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brooktree Capital Management bought a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth $352,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. This represents a 29.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,402,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $584,699,785.79. This trade represents a 1.33% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 226,128 shares of company stock valued at $61,326,372 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Alphabet from $236.00 to $268.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Alphabet from $270.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. DZ Bank reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. BMO Capital Markets set a $294.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, President Capital raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $258.00 to $323.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have assigned a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $314.22.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL opened at $309.29 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $283.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $229.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The stock has a market cap of $3.73 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.07. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $328.83.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. Sell-side 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 will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 8th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 8.28%.

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.