Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC Purchases 582 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC increased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 23,516 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 582 shares during the quarter. Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,313,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Park Avenue Securities LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 11.9% in the 1st quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 109,878 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $16,730,000 after buying an additional 11,646 shares during the last quarter. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 5.3% in the 2nd quarter. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,126 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $390,000 after buying an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 187,229 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $28,508,000 after buying an additional 8,201 shares during the period. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton increased its position in Alphabet by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 11,366 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,097,000 after buying an additional 498 shares during the period. Finally, Alliance Wealth Management Group lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 93.6% during the first quarter. Alliance Wealth Management Group now owns 3,910 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $595,000 after buying an additional 1,890 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.74, for a total transaction of $4,201,650.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,227,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $415,941,874.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.74, for a total value of $4,201,650.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,227,385 shares in the company, valued at $415,941,874.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total value of $125,126.54. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 30,650 shares in the company, valued at $5,623,355.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 202,667 shares of company stock worth $33,964,256. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on GOOG. 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. DA Davidson raised Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Rosenblatt Securities lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Friday, June 28th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $182.86.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $164.64 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $121.46 and a one year high of $193.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 2.08. The company has a market cap 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $166.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $166.79.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. Alphabet’s revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.44 EPS. Research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

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.