Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Has $7.34 Million Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 41,380 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 789 shares during the quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,340,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 12.6% in the second quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 236,111 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $41,884,000 after purchasing an additional 26,434 shares in the last quarter. Concord Asset Management LLC VA boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 35.7% in the second quarter. Concord Asset Management LLC VA now owns 10,631 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,886,000 after purchasing an additional 2,796 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 594,959 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $105,540,000 after acquiring an additional 41,132 shares in the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 40.9% during the 2nd quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 49,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,740,000 after acquiring an additional 14,291 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pandora Wealth Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Pandora Wealth Inc. now owns 5,456 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $968,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $251.88 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.05 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $142.66 and a one year high of $257.58. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $231.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $192.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. Analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total transaction of $680,610.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,236,785. This trade represents a 13.84% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.50, for a total transaction of $8,108,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,397,392 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $598,149,304. This represents a 1.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 210,872 shares of company stock valued at $46,980,865 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Mizuho upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Scotiabank restated an “outperform” rating and set a $310.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $244.68.

About Alphabet

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.