eCIO Inc. Buys New Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Key Points

• eCIO Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet Inc. during Q1, acquiring 2,724 shares valued at approximately $426,000.
• Multiple institutional investors, including Nuveen LLC and GAMMA Investing LLC, significantly increased their investments in Alphabet, with GAMMA increasing its holdings by over 18,562%.
• Alphabet recently announced a dividend of $0.21 per share, with a yield of 0.3% and a payout ratio of 8.95%.

eCIO Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 2,724 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $426,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOG. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth $2,622,943,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in 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 worth $2,237,733,000 after buying an additional 14,246,573 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted 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 worth $64,299,725,000 after buying an additional 9,687,855 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $786,942,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $240.78 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $242.57. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $201.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $178.39. The company has a market cap of $2.91 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.95%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Lake Street Capital reiterated a "buy" 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 objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, June 2nd. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $186.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $227.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 15,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $2,786,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 240,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at $44,656,704. The trade was a 5.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $203.79, for a total transaction of $122,274.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 6,316 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,287,137.64. The trade was a 8.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 254,710 shares of company stock worth $49,208,380 in the last quarter. 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.

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