Wheelhouse Advisory Group LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Wheelhouse Advisory Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 16.5% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,648 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 234 shares during the period. Wheelhouse Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $292,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at about $26,000. IFS Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 400.0% during the 2nd quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the period. Robbins Farley boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 60.0% during the 2nd quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. WestEnd Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 58.7% during the 2nd quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares during the period. Finally, Goodman Advisory Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. 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 note on Thursday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $232.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Roth Capital reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $241.00.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.44, for a total transaction of $149,664.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,716 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,425,799.04. The trade was a 9.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 103 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.13, for a total value of $25,042.39. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 17,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,202,258.92. This trade represents a 0.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 276,738 shares of company stock valued at $59,135,475 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG stock opened at $237.49 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $226.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $189.66. The stock has a market cap of $2.87 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.29, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $256.70. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion during 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. 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.