J.Safra Asset Management Corp Buys 2,654 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

J.Safra Asset Management Corp lifted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 21.1% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 15,217 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,654 shares during the quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,713,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. RDA Financial Network increased its position in Alphabet by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter. RDA Financial Network now owns 11,094 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,968,000 after buying an additional 554 shares in the last quarter. Tower View Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. Tower View Wealth Management LLC now owns 27,644 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,904,000 after buying an additional 1,776 shares in the last quarter. Oldfather Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at about $213,000. Truist Financial Corp increased its position in Alphabet by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 3,626,927 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $643,381,000 after buying an additional 15,065 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GC Wealth Management RIA LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 115.7% during the 2nd quarter. GC Wealth Management RIA LLC now owns 214,392 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $38,031,000 after buying an additional 115,003 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. KeyCorp set a $265.00 target price on Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $270.00 price objective (up from $235.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Barclays reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Phillip Securities lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $244.68.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of GOOG opened at $253.79 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $257.58. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a market capitalization of $3.07 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.03, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $232.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $192.73.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.95%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.15, for a total value of $8,129,875.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,369,619 shares in the company, valued at $592,760,192.85. This represents a 1.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.92, for a total value of $145,752.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,116 shares in the company, valued at $1,242,778.72. This represents a 10.50% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 243,372 shares of company stock valued at $55,110,740. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.