Ethic Inc. Purchases 119,720 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Ethic Inc. raised its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 28.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 536,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 119,720 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 1.7% of Ethic Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Ethic Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $85,173,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,622,943,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 18,562.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,237,733,000 after purchasing an additional 14,246,573 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $64,299,725,000 after purchasing an additional 9,687,855 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,873,751,000 after purchasing an additional 7,917,625 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Barclays restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Pivotal Research upped their price objective on Alphabet from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Tigress Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $171.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Alphabet from $186.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $215.19.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.4%

Alphabet stock opened at $203.82 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $208.70. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $184.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. The business had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.67 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.95%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total value of $4,637,754.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 42,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,371,905.30. This represents a 35.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $203.79, for a total value of $122,274.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 6,316 shares in the company, valued at $1,287,137.64. This trade represents a 8.68% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 274,819 shares of company stock worth $49,796,547 over the last ninety days. 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.