Boltwood Capital Management Raises Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Boltwood Capital Management increased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 2,675 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the quarter. Boltwood Capital Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $475,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 111.8% in the first quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter worth $34,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $229.73, for a total value of $7,466,225.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,429,892 shares in the company, valued at $558,219,089.16. This trade represents a 1.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $2,786,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 240,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,656,704. This represents a 5.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 254,710 shares of company stock valued at $49,208,380 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.2%

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $241.38 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $2.92 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $202.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $178.92. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $242.57. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.95%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price target (up from $185.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Pivotal Research raised their price target on Alphabet from $245.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. BNP Paribas lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. UBS Group raised their price target on Alphabet from $186.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, KeyCorp set a $265.00 price target on Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $227.56.

Alphabet Company 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.