Armstrong Fleming & Moore Inc Boosts Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Armstrong Fleming & Moore Inc grew its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 119.0% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 4,400 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,391 shares during the period. Armstrong Fleming & Moore Inc’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $781,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. IFS Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 400.0% during the second quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Robbins Farley lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 60.0% during the second quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 58.7% during the second quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter worth $26,000. Finally, Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter worth $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $270.00 price objective (up previously from $235.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Mizuho upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective (up previously from $185.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $241.00.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.9%

GOOG opened at $237.49 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.87 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.00. 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 Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $256.70. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $226.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $189.81.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.67 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The firm’s revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.95%.

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.