Alphabet Inc. $GOOG is L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s 7th Largest Position

L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 174,856 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,396 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises approximately 3.7% of L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $31,018,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. IFS Advisors LLC grew its holdings 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 buying an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Robbins Farley grew its holdings 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 buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC grew its holdings 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 buying an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter worth $26,000. Finally, Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter worth $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the company’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 owned 243,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,213,984. This represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.23, for a total transaction of $6,377,475.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,494,892 shares in the company, valued at $489,572,657.16. The trade was a 1.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 276,338 shares of company stock valued at $59,062,683 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Trading Up 3.0%

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $244.64 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $227.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $190.61. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $256.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.96 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.05, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.67 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.95%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on GOOG. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citizens Jmp raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. KeyCorp set a $265.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective (up previously from $185.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $241.00.

Alphabet 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.