Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Purchased by Wedmont Private Capital

Key Points

• Wedmont Private Capital increased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. by 4.3%, owning a total of 99,298 shares valued at approximately $17.6 million.
• The company's stock has a market cap of $3.05 trillion and recently reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $2.31, exceeding analysts' expectations.
• Insiders at Alphabet, including CEO Sundar Pichai, sold significant portions of their shares recently, with total insider sales amounting to over $52 million.

Wedmont Private Capital raised its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 4.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 99,298 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 4,085 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 0.8% of Wedmont Private Capital's investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest holding. Wedmont Private Capital's holdings in Alphabet were worth $17,641,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at about $2,622,943,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 18,562.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,237,733,000 after purchasing an additional 14,246,573 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 9,687,855 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $786,942,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Roth Capital reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an "equal weight" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, June 2nd. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, KeyCorp set a $265.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $230.35.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of Alphabet stock traded down $2.36 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $252.88. 20,038,778 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 25,284,148. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $211.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $182.24. 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 Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $256.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $93.67 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast 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. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th were given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.95%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.44, for a total value of $149,664.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 5,716 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,425,799.04. This trade represents a 9.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total transaction of $4,637,754.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 42,999 shares in the company, valued at $8,371,905.30. This represents a 35.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 258,088 shares of company stock valued at $52,405,304. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.