Financial Advocates Investment Management Has $3.03 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Financial Advocates Investment Management raised its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 123.2% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 17,053 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,414 shares during the quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,025,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GOOG. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the 2nd 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 acquiring an additional 135,064,454 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth about $2,622,943,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew 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 last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Alphabet by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,971,861,000 after buying an additional 9,243,959 shares during the period. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 17,547.9% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,122,727 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $731,331,000 after buying an additional 4,099,366 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $296.64, for a total transaction of $9,640,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,304,619 shares in the company, valued at approximately $683,642,180.16. This represents a 1.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $291.80, for a total value of $32,681.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 18,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,253,567.20. This trade represents a 0.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 227,952 shares of company stock valued at $58,896,009 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 6.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $318.47 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $264.32 and its 200-day moving average is $215.82. 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 Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $319.80. The company has a market capitalization of $3.84 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.12 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOG has been the topic of several research analyst reports. HSBC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $335.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Wolfe Research raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Loop Capital upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Phillip Securities raised Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “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.