Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Holdings Boosted by PDS Planning Inc

PDS Planning Inc boosted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 21.3% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 44,559 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,831 shares during the quarter. PDS Planning Inc’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,904,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cascade Investment Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% during the second quarter. Cascade Investment Group Inc. now owns 7,646 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,356,000 after buying an additional 229 shares in the last quarter. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% during the second quarter. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP now owns 174,856 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,018,000 after buying an additional 2,396 shares in the last quarter. Antonelli Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% during the second quarter. Antonelli Financial Advisors LLC now owns 19,157 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,398,000 after buying an additional 350 shares in the last quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 64,852 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,504,000 after purchasing an additional 835 shares during the period. Finally, Pinion Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 12.2% in the 2nd quarter. Pinion Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,726 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $306,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $244.64 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $256.70. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $227.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $190.61. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $2.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.05, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th were issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.95%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on GOOG. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. KeyCorp set a $265.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Mizuho raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Six research 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 issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $241.00.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 103 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.13, for a total value of $25,042.39. Following the sale, the director owned 17,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,202,258.92. This trade represents a 0.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total transaction of $4,408,034.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 42,985 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. The trade was a 29.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 276,338 shares of company stock worth $59,062,683. 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.