North Star Investment Management Corp. Purchases 1,064 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

North Star Investment Management Corp. grew its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.5% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 31,067 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,064 shares during the period. North Star Investment Management Corp.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,511,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $23,963,208,000 after buying an additional 135,064,454 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the first quarter worth about $2,622,943,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 18,562.3% during the first 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 period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.4% during the first 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 period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 9.9% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $246.57 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $256.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.98 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.26, a PEG ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $215.38 and its 200-day moving average is $183.72.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly 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 net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The business had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 8.95%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on GOOG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Alphabet from $232.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. UBS Group lifted 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. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $230.35.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $2,786,400.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 240,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,656,704. This trade represents a 5.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total value of $680,610.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 17,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,236,785. The trade was a 13.84% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 258,088 shares of company stock valued at $52,405,304 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.