Providence Capital Advisors LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Providence Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 54.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 87,333 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 30,801 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 3.5% of Providence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Providence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $16,019,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth $37,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Slocum Gordon & Co LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth $44,000. Hoese & Co LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 62.5% in the 2nd quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 260 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth $48,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 9 shares in the company, valued at $1,655.91. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.63, for a total transaction of $3,614,175.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,114,885 shares in the company, valued at $339,713,977.55. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total value of $600,175.38. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 9 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,655.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 202,667 shares of company stock worth $33,964,256. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on GOOG shares. DA Davidson upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Rosenblatt Securities cut 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. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Wolfe Research upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Three investment 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 MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $182.86.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.0 %

Alphabet stock opened at $163.07 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $121.46 and a 52 week high of $193.31. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $165.76 and its 200 day moving average price is $167.46. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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