Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Purchased by MFA Wealth Services

MFA Wealth Services raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 10.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,214 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 204 shares during the period. MFA Wealth Services’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $393,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Leo Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 102.1% during the second quarter. Leo Wealth LLC now owns 20,350 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,610,000 after purchasing an additional 10,279 shares during the period. Copperwynd Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% during the second quarter. Copperwynd Financial LLC now owns 9,540 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,692,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. Armstrong Fleming & Moore Inc raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 119.0% during the second quarter. Armstrong Fleming & Moore Inc now owns 4,400 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $781,000 after purchasing an additional 2,391 shares during the period. Allegiance Financial Group Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.6% during the second quarter. Allegiance Financial Group Advisory Services LLC now owns 1,826 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $324,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the period. Finally, InTrack Investment Management Inc raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 29.5% during the second quarter. InTrack Investment Management Inc now owns 11,718 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,079,000 after purchasing an additional 2,671 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.41, for a total transaction of $7,910,825.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,402,119 shares in the company, valued at $584,699,785.79. The trade was a 1.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 953 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.20, for a total transaction of $229,863.60. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 17,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,171,312.80. The trade was a 5.22% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 276,338 shares of company stock valued at $59,062,683 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. KeyCorp set a $265.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $241.00.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.9%

GOOG stock opened at $237.49 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $256.70. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $226.97 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $189.99. The firm has a market cap of $2.87 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.29, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.67 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 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.