Benjamin Edwards Inc. Has $1.23 Million Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 255.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,720 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,828 shares during the quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,233,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $37,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. Slocum Gordon & Co LLP acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $44,000. Hoese & Co LLP grew its position in Alphabet by 62.5% during the second quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 260 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $48,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GOOG. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. DA Davidson raised Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $182.86.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $163.24 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $166.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $166.58. The company has a market cap of $2.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $121.46 and a fifty-two week high of $193.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08.

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. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.44 EPS. Alphabet’s revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 EPS 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 $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,655.91. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,655.91. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,114,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $339,713,977.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 202,667 shares of company stock worth $33,964,256. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.