Bowen Hanes & Co. Inc. Raises Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Bowen Hanes & Co. Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.5% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 44,353 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 218 shares during the quarter. Bowen Hanes & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,929,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth $2,622,943,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 18,562.3% in 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 buying an additional 14,246,573 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in 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 buying an additional 9,687,855 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% in 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 buying an additional 9,243,959 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% in 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 buying an additional 7,917,625 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 target price (up from $185.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Pivotal Research lifted their target price on Alphabet from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Barclays reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC downgraded Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “cautious” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $215.19.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total value of $5,801,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. This trade represents a 1.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the insider owned 42,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,371,905.30. This represents a 35.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 274,819 shares of company stock worth $49,796,547. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $204.29 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $208.70. 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 stock’s 50-day moving average price is $185.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $174.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.47 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.02.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.67 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.95%.

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.