Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Acquired by Howe & Rusling Inc.

Howe & Rusling Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 71,264 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,513 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises approximately 0.9% of Howe & Rusling Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. Howe & Rusling Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $12,642,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. RDA Financial Network raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter. RDA Financial Network now owns 11,094 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,968,000 after buying an additional 554 shares during the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 1.4% during the second quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 170,020 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $30,160,000 after acquiring an additional 2,304 shares during the period. Oldfather Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter valued at approximately $213,000. Tower View Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 6.9% during the second quarter. Tower View Wealth Management LLC now owns 27,644 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,904,000 after acquiring an additional 1,776 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dock Street Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.8% in the second quarter. Dock Street Asset Management Inc. now owns 234,306 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $41,563,000 after acquiring an additional 1,970 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GOOG. Scotiabank set a $336.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. DA Davidson set a $825.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, October 27th. Mizuho set a $325.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Raymond James Financial set a $275.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Wolfe Research increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.81.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $292.99 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $260.83 and a 200 day moving average of $212.43. The firm has a market cap of $3.54 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.89, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $142.66 and a one year high of $304.25.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. The company’s revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.12 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.28%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.05, for a total value of $694,638.90. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 14,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,629,725.80. The trade was a 16.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.15, for a total value of $8,129,875.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,369,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $592,760,192.85. The trade was a 1.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 195,452 shares of company stock worth $49,255,209 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.