FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH Raises Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Key Points

• Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Long Beach increased its stock position in Alphabet Inc. by 53.1% during the second quarter, holding a total of 18,527 shares valued at approximately $3.3 million.
• Alphabet reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $2.31, exceeding the consensus estimate of $2.12, with revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, up 13.8% year-over-year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, with a current dividend yield of 0.3% and a payout ratio of 8.95%.

FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 53.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,527 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 6,422 shares during the quarter. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH's holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,287,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.2% in the second quarter. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 25,851 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $4,586,000 after purchasing an additional 1,501 shares during the period. GC Wealth Management RIA LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 115.7% during the second quarter. GC Wealth Management RIA LLC now owns 214,392 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $38,031,000 after purchasing an additional 115,003 shares in the last quarter. Enclave Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 42.6% during the second quarter. Enclave Advisors LLC now owns 12,436 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,206,000 after purchasing an additional 3,713 shares in the last quarter. Greenbush Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.6% during the second quarter. Greenbush Financial Group LLC now owns 14,625 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,594,000 after purchasing an additional 910 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Insight Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17.5% during the second quarter. Capital Insight Partners LLC now owns 5,537 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $982,000 after buying an additional 826 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $243.55 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.95 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.94, a PEG ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.01. 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 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $256.70. The business's 50 day moving average is $218.70 and its two-hundred day moving average is $185.47.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The business had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.67 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. The business's revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th were paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 8.95%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total value of $5,992,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,527,392 shares of the company's stock, valued at $466,000,536.96. This trade represents a 1.27% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 225,469 shares of company stock valued at $46,586,752. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "moderate buy" rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. UBS Group increased their price target on Alphabet from $186.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Scotiabank raised their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $230.35.

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.

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