Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC Acquires 4,411 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 15.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 32,455 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 4,411 shares during the quarter. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,070,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of GOOG. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $5,166,070,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 18,562.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,237,733,000 after acquiring an additional 14,246,573 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $10,873,751,000 after acquiring an additional 7,917,625 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 181,679.1% during the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 7,225,721 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,376,066,000 after acquiring an additional 7,221,746 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $17,376,706,000 after acquiring an additional 5,758,244 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG traded up $1.24 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $185.94. The company had a trading volume of 20,915,424 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,587,144. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $142.66 and a one year high of $208.70. The firm has a market cap of $2.26 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.73, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.01. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $174.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $174.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's payout ratio is 9.36%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,575,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 255,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $44,695,000. The trade was a 3.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 400 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.98, for a total value of $72,792.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 6,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,094,245.74. This trade represents a 6.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 215,843 shares of company stock worth $37,288,490. Insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on GOOG shares. Cowen reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Citigroup reissued a "sell" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Rosenblatt Securities raised Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Susquehanna reissued a "positive" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Raymond James Financial reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $208.40.

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.