Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Bought by Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC

Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 13.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 45,271 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,441 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 1.5% of Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,073,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 111.8% during the 1st quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth approximately $26,000. Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth approximately $32,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $53,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Needham & Company LLC lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “cautious” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group upped their price target on Alphabet from $186.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Citizens Jmp upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $215.19.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.5%

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $204.91 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $185.21 and its two-hundred day moving average is $174.52. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.48 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.02.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.95%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.79, for a total value of $122,274.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 6,316 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,287,137.64. This trade represents a 8.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.23, for a total value of $6,377,475.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,494,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $489,572,657.16. The trade was a 1.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 274,819 shares of company stock valued at $49,796,547 in the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.