Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Has $22.96 Million Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Key Points

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Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management boosted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 46.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 146,928 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 46,699 shares during the quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management's holdings in Alphabet were worth $22,955,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of GOOG. Concentrum Wealth Management boosted its stake in Alphabet by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 17,328 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $3,300,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 10.6% in the fourth quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 593 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $113,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Kidder Stephen W raised its holdings in Alphabet by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Kidder Stephen W now owns 3,608 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $687,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Objectivity Squared LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.4% in the first quarter. Objectivity Squared LLC now owns 16,342 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,605,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares during the period. Finally, Tranquility Partners LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.4% in the first quarter. Tranquility Partners LLC now owns 14,488 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,263,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on GOOG. Tigress Financial restated a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Pivotal Research raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. KeyCorp decreased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Cowen reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $215.19.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 400 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction 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 sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total transaction of $5,992,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,527,392 shares of the company's stock, valued at $466,000,536.96. The trade was a 1.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 249,399 shares of company stock worth $43,525,794. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.5%

Shares of GOOG traded down $2.91 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $189.95. 21,211,425 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 25,077,368. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The business has a 50-day moving average of $179.37 and a 200-day moving average of $174.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.31 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.02.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share 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 company 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. Alphabet's revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current 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 issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.95%.

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.