Lutz Financial Services LLC Buys 134 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Lutz Financial Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 6.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,131 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the quarter. Lutz Financial Services LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $333,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,901,000 after buying an additional 6,410 shares during the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG grew its stake 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 valued at $96,465,000 after buying an additional 20,855 shares during the last quarter. Partners in Financial Planning bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $491,000. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 11.2% during the fourth quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 8,401 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,598,000 after buying an additional 846 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FSB Premier Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. FSB Premier Wealth Management Inc. now owns 16,715 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,183,000 after buying an additional 734 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the sale, the director directly owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total value of $5,992,350.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,527,392 shares in the company, valued at $466,000,536.96. This trade represents a 1.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 249,409 shares of company stock worth $43,523,710 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $193.42 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.35 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The business has a fifty day moving average of $177.37 and a 200 day moving average of $174.38. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 quarter last year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.95%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on GOOG shares. Roth Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Pivotal Research upped their target price on Alphabet from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 target price (up previously from $185.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Barclays reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $215.19.

Alphabet 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.