Verus Capital Partners LLC Acquires 2,389 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Verus Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 34,575 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,389 shares during the quarter. Verus Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,133,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. IFS Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 400.0% during the second quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the period. Robbins Farley boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 60.0% in the second quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the period. WestEnd Advisors LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 58.7% during the second quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Fairman Group LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 121.3% during the 2nd quarter. Fairman Group LLC now owns 177 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares during the period. Finally, Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth $32,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $291.74 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $254.94 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $207.64. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $292.34. The company has a market capitalization of $3.53 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%.The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.12 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 8.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the director directly owned 5,116 shares in the company, valued at $1,242,778.72. This represents a 10.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares in the company, valued at $10,635,348.70. The trade was a 29.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 221,796 shares of company stock valued at $53,983,001 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Alphabet from $300.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Hsbc Global Res raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Rosenblatt Securities set a $279.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $340.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $324.81.

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.