Confluence Investment Management LLC Has $50.09 Million Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Key Points

• Confluence Investment Management LLC reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. by 0.5% in Q2, holding a total of $50.09 million in 282,383 shares following the sale of 1,387 shares.
• Several institutional investors, including Vanguard Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., have increased their positions in Alphabet, highlighting strong interest from the investment community.
• Alphabet recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, set to be paid on September 15th, reflecting a yield of 0.3% and a payout ratio of 8.95%.

Confluence Investment Management LLC lessened its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 282,383 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 1,387 shares during the quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $50,092,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position 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 acquiring an additional 9,687,855 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% during 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. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 34,103,417 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $6,494,655,000 after buying an additional 769,335 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.4% during the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 21,345,784 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $3,334,852,000 after buying an additional 1,098,996 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,380,073 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $3,183,979,000 after buying an additional 440,526 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of several analyst reports. Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $270.00 price target (up previously from $235.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Cowen reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "moderate buy" rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $227.56.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $241.38 on Friday. 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 twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $242.57. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $202.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $178.83. The firm has a market cap of $2.92 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.71, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.67 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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 paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 8.95%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total value of $4,637,754.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 42,999 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,371,905.30. The trade was a 35.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $199.92, for a total transaction of $6,497,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,462,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $492,281,408.64. This represents a 1.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 254,710 shares of company stock worth $49,208,380. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Company 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.

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