Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Stock Position Lifted by Baird Financial Group Inc.

Key Points

• Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. by 3.2%, acquiring an additional 201,377 shares, bringing its total ownership to 6,407,770 shares, valued at approximately $1 billion.
• Major institutional investors, including Nuveen LLC and Vanguard Group Inc., have also made significant investments in Alphabet, contributing to a total of 27.26% institutional ownership of the stock.
• Alphabet's stock recently received several favorable ratings from analysts, with a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a price target average of $215.19.

Baird Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 3.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,407,770 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 201,377 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 1.9% of Baird Financial Group Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest position. Baird Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.05% of Alphabet worth $1,001,086,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $22,901,000 after purchasing an additional 6,410 shares in the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 506,535 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $96,465,000 after buying an additional 20,855 shares during the last quarter. Hutner Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 29.6% during the fourth quarter. Hutner Capital Management Inc. now owns 36,112 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $6,877,000 after buying an additional 8,252 shares during the last quarter. Pennington Partners & CO. LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $612,000. Finally, Wahed Invest LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 122,591 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $23,346,000 after buying an additional 3,537 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total transaction of $5,801,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,559,892 shares of the company's stock, valued at $456,991,919.84. The trade was a 1.25% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the sale, the director owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 254,710 shares of company stock worth $47,225,230. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of GOOG stock traded down $1.62 on Tuesday, reaching $211.91. 17,114,658 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 23,611,908. 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 $215.34. The company has a market capitalization of $2.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.57, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.01. The business's 50 day moving average price is $192.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $175.60.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $93.67 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.95%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Raymond James Financial restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $210.00 target price (up from $185.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $235.00 target price (up from $220.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Cowen restated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. BNP Paribas cut Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $215.19.

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.