ZEGA Investments LLC Grows Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

ZEGA Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 34.6% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 35,911 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,227 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up 0.9% of ZEGA Investments LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. ZEGA Investments LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,370,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. IFS Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 400.0% during the second quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Robbins Farley increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 60.0% during the second quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. WestEnd Advisors LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 58.7% during 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. Fairman Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 121.3% in the 2nd quarter. Fairman Group LLC now owns 177 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the period. Finally, Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter worth approximately $32,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOG has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $285.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Wolfe Research boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $324.81.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 954 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.33, for a total value of $269,342.82. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 14,517 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,098,584.61. This trade represents a 6.17% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares in the company, valued at $10,635,348.70. This represents a 29.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 222,396 shares of company stock valued at $54,105,275 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.0%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $279.70 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $251.81 and its two-hundred day moving average is $205.83. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $291.93. 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 company has a market capitalization of $3.38 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.58, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.12 EPS. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

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.