Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Stake Boosted by Oak Ridge Investments LLC

Oak Ridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 236,769 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,323 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 3.0% of Oak Ridge Investments LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 8th largest position. Oak Ridge Investments LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $42,000,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $23,963,208,000 after purchasing an additional 135,064,454 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the first quarter worth about $2,622,943,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 2.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $64,299,725,000 after purchasing an additional 9,687,855 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 9.9% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares during the period. Finally, Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the first quarter worth about $369,713,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.2%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $251.71 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $230.06 and its 200-day moving average price is $191.42. The company has a market cap of $3.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $256.70. 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 issued 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 company had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. 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 dividend payout ratio is 8.95%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total transaction of $680,610.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 17,293 shares in the company, valued at $4,236,785. This represents a 13.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 244,438 shares of company stock worth $53,216,085 in the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. BNP Paribas cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” 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. KeyCorp set a $265.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $241.00.

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.