Steph & Co. Boosts Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Steph & Co. increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 48.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 888 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 288 shares during the period. Steph & Co.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $135,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 17,841 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,352,000 after purchasing an additional 914 shares during the last quarter. Pegasus Partners Ltd. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 0.8% in the third quarter. Pegasus Partners Ltd. now owns 39,263 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,177,000 after buying an additional 301 shares during the last quarter. Operose Advisors LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 13.4% in the third quarter. Operose Advisors LLC now owns 3,306 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $436,000 after buying an additional 390 shares in the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 26.9% during the 3rd quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 277,229 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $36,553,000 after buying an additional 58,691 shares during the last quarter. Finally, O ROURKE & COMPANY Inc boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. O ROURKE & COMPANY Inc now owns 17,965 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,369,000 after acquiring an additional 476 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on GOOG. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $165.67.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.3 %

GOOG opened at $180.79 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.83 and a 52 week high of $182.51. The business’s 50 day moving average is $172.10 and its two-hundred day moving average is $154.41. The firm has a market cap of $2.23 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.38. The business had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $78.75 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.17 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.6 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a — dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 12.27%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.67, for a total value of $3,502,575.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,325,513 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $362,012,608.71. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.67, for a total transaction of $3,502,575.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,325,513 shares in the company, valued at $362,012,608.71. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total value of $508,150.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 144,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,566,519.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 158,458 shares of company stock valued at $26,375,053. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.