FAS Wealth Partners Inc. Has $7.94 Million Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

FAS Wealth Partners Inc. increased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 50,805 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 489 shares during the quarter. FAS Wealth Partners Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,937,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,901,000 after acquiring an additional 6,410 shares during the period. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 506,535 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $96,465,000 after purchasing an additional 20,855 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 44.6% during the 4th quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 19,559 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,725,000 after acquiring an additional 6,033 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 776.0% during the 4th quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 296,487 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $56,463,000 after acquiring an additional 262,640 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 643,422 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $122,533,000 after acquiring an additional 30,775 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $105,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 6,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,192,275. This represents a 8.09% 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, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total transaction of $5,992,350.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,527,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $466,000,536.96. The trade was a 1.27% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 215,843 shares of company stock worth $37,288,490 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on GOOG shares. Needham & Company LLC lowered shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “cautious” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Lake Street Capital restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, June 2nd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $171.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $208.40.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.7%

NASDAQ GOOG traded up $1.24 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $185.94. 20,915,424 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 21,558,739. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $208.70. The firm has a market cap of $2.26 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.73, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $174.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $174.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

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.