Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Stake Lifted by Optas LLC

Optas LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 101,046 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 325 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises approximately 3.4% of Optas LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 7th largest position. Optas LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $17,925,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total value of $5,992,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,527,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $466,000,536.96. This represents a 1.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 276,738 shares of company stock worth $59,135,475 over the last three months. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on GOOG shares. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. KeyCorp set a $265.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Scotiabank boosted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Pivotal Research boosted their target price on Alphabet from $245.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $241.00.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.9%

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $237.49 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $256.70. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $226.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $189.81. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a market capitalization of $2.87 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.29, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. 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 the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 8.95%.

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.