Merriman Wealth Management LLC Grows Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Merriman Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 21.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 15,524 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,722 shares during the period. Merriman Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,847,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Alphabet by 19.7% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,815,986,000 after acquiring an additional 13,876,534 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth about $1,378,708,000. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,355,724,000 after purchasing an additional 7,470,042 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 51.8% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,416,150 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $976,923,000 after buying an additional 2,190,795 shares during the period. Finally, Vima LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 178,253.1% during the first quarter. Vima LLC now owns 2,001,122 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $304,691,000 after buying an additional 2,000,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on GOOG. 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. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price target for the company. in a report on Friday, June 28th. DA Davidson upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $182.86.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total transaction of $600,175.38. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 9 shares in the company, valued at $1,655.91. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 9 shares in the company, valued at $1,655.91. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total transaction of $125,126.54. Following the sale, 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 90 days, insiders have sold 202,667 shares of company stock valued at $33,964,256. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of 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 stock has a 50-day moving average price of $166.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $167.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08. The company has a market capitalization of $2.03 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The business 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.44 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

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.