Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. Increases Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 19,211.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 273,069 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 271,655 shares during the period. Symphony Financial Ltd. Co.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $48,511,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. IFS Advisors LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 400.0% in the second quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Robbins Farley increased 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 acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC raised 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 acquiring an additional 61 shares during the period. Fairman Group LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 121.3% during the 2nd quarter. Fairman Group LLC now owns 177 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares during the period. Finally, Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter worth approximately $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 954 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.33, for a total transaction of $269,342.82. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 14,517 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,098,584.61. This represents a 6.17% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.48, for a total transaction of $9,213,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,337,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $662,526,494.12. The trade was a 1.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 221,796 shares of company stock valued at $53,983,001. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on GOOG. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Mizuho set a $325.00 target price on Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Scotiabank set a $336.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $330.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.81.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.8%

GOOG stock opened at $276.98 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $257.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $210.16. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $292.36. The firm has a market cap of $3.34 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.12 earnings per share. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be paid 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 payout ratio is presently 8.28%.

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.