Cooper Financial Group Boosts Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Cooper Financial Group grew its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 11.4% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 32,616 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,327 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 0.7% of Cooper Financial Group’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest position. Cooper Financial Group’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,786,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. ACT Advisors LLC. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% during the second quarter. ACT Advisors LLC. now owns 1,625 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $288,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. LongView Wealth Management boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. LongView Wealth Management now owns 5,126 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $909,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Kooman & Associates boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Kooman & Associates now owns 4,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $732,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.4% in the second quarter. Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,742 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $309,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NCM Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.2% in the first quarter. NCM Capital Management LLC now owns 2,802 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $438,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on GOOG. KeyCorp set a $265.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Mizuho upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Pivotal Research raised their target price on Alphabet from $245.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Barclays reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Five equities research 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $235.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the business’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 $3,448,820.16. Following the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,213,984. The trade was a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total transaction of $4,637,754.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,999 shares in the company, valued at $8,371,905.30. This trade represents a 35.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 276,738 shares of company stock valued at $59,135,475. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.4%

GOOG opened at $246.43 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $256.70. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $220.84 and its 200 day moving average is $186.43. The stock has a market cap of $2.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast 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. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th were issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio 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.