Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Position Boosted by Eastover Investment Advisors LLC

Eastover Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 50,371 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 304 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 4.0% of Eastover Investment Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Eastover Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $8,935,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 111.8% during the first quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $34,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on GOOG. Pivotal Research lifted their price target on Alphabet from $245.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Roth Capital restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. KeyCorp set a $265.00 price target on Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $270.00 target price (up from $235.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $230.35.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.2%

Alphabet stock opened at $247.18 on Monday. 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 business’s fifty day simple moving average is $216.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $184.53. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $256.70. The company has a market capitalization of $2.99 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.67 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business 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 predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 17,293 shares in the company, valued at $4,236,785. The trade was a 13.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $229.73, for a total value of $7,466,225.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,429,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $558,219,089.16. This trade represents a 1.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 257,866 shares of company stock worth $52,363,610 over the last three months. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.