MFA Wealth Services Boosts Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

MFA Wealth Services raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 10.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,214 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 204 shares during the quarter. MFA Wealth Services’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $393,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $64,299,725,000 after acquiring an additional 9,687,855 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 580,897.4% during 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% during the first 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. Deutsche Bank AG grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.4% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 21,345,784 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,334,852,000 after buying an additional 1,098,996 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,380,073 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,183,979,000 after buying an additional 440,526 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GOOG. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Lake Street Capital reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price target (up from $185.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $241.00.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG opened at $237.49 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $226.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $189.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $256.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.87 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.67 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th were given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.95%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 103 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.13, for a total transaction of $25,042.39. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 17,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,202,258.92. The trade was a 0.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total transaction of $4,408,034.72. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. This trade represents a 29.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 276,338 shares of company stock valued at $59,062,683. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.