Trust Co of the South Increases Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Trust Co of the South increased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 17.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,637 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,270 shares during the quarter. Trust Co of the South’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,444,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9,200.0% in the 2nd quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 186 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the period. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter worth $37,000. HWG Holdings LP bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at $40,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, Slocum Gordon & Co LLP purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at $44,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on GOOG shares. Pivotal Research assumed coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $215.00 price objective for the company. Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Rosenblatt Securities cut Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Wolfe Research raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, DA Davidson upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $183.75.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.7 %

GOOG stock opened at $167.31 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $121.46 and a 52-week high of $193.31. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a market cap of $2.07 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.66, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $163.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $168.50.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.44 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal 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 dividend of $0.20 per share. 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 0.48%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.85, for a total transaction of $278,775.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 30,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,728,640.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.85, for a total value of $278,775.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 30,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,728,640.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.00, for a total value of $114,576.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 31,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,264,112. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 217,592 shares of company stock worth $35,922,911 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet 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.