Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Bought by Diligent Investors LLC

Diligent Investors LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 33.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,961 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,506 shares during the quarter. Diligent Investors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,057,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $64,299,725,000 after buying an additional 9,687,855 shares during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 580,897.4% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $23,963,208,000 after acquiring an additional 135,064,454 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after acquiring an additional 9,243,959 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.4% in the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 21,345,784 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,334,852,000 after acquiring an additional 1,098,996 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,380,073 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,183,979,000 after acquiring an additional 440,526 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of several research reports. Morgan Stanley lifted 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. Barclays reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $230.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price target (up from $185.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total value of $4,637,754.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 42,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,371,905.30. This represents a 35.65% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 sold 276,738 shares of company stock worth $59,135,475 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.1%

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $251.51 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $256.70. The firm has a market cap of $3.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $223.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $187.91.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion for 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%.Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

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.