Acorn Financial Advisory Services Inc. ADV Purchases New Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Acorn Financial Advisory Services Inc. ADV purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 1,798 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $319,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. IFS Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 400.0% during the second quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Robbins Farley raised its holdings in Alphabet by 60.0% in the 2nd quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 58.7% in the 2nd quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goodman Advisory Group LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth $32,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 42,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. This trade represents a 29.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 103 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.13, for a total value of $25,042.39. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 17,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,202,258.92. The trade was a 0.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 243,372 shares of company stock valued at $55,110,740 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on GOOG. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $310.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Phillip Securities lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Citizens Jmp upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $244.68.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.8%

GOOG stock opened at $253.79 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $257.58. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a market cap of $3.07 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a 50 day moving average of $232.18 and a 200 day moving average of $192.73.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The company’s revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

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.