Simplify Asset Management Inc. Purchases Shares of 1,268 Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Simplify Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 1,268 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $233,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 2.5% during the second quarter. Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC now owns 23,516 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,313,000 after purchasing an additional 582 shares in the last quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 56.1% during the 2nd quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. now owns 438,366 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $80,405,000 after buying an additional 157,453 shares in the last quarter. Callan Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 36.8% in the 2nd quarter. Callan Capital LLC now owns 21,029 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,857,000 after acquiring an additional 5,657 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its position in Alphabet by 27.8% in the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 7,499,245 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,375,512,000 after acquiring an additional 1,632,691 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 255.2% during the second quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 6,720 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,233,000 after acquiring an additional 4,828 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Wolfe Research upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. DA Davidson upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Rosenblatt Securities cut shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $182.86.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of GOOG opened at $164.64 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.03 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.25, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 2.08. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $121.46 and a 1-year high of $193.31. The company has a 50-day moving average of $166.26 and a 200 day moving average of $166.79.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The company’s revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.44 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 12.27%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.63, for a total value of $3,614,175.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,114,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $339,713,977.55. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total transaction of $600,175.38. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,655.91. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.63, for a total value of $3,614,175.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,114,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $339,713,977.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 202,667 shares of company stock valued at $33,964,256. 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.