Mather Group LLC. Buys 1,457 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Mather Group LLC increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. by 2.6% in Q2, acquiring an additional 1,457 shares, bringing their total holding to 57,958 shares worth approximately $10.21 million.
• Multiple institutional investors, including Nuveen LLC and Amundi, have significantly increased their investments in Alphabet, with the institutional ownership now at 40.03% of the company’s stock.
• Analyst ratings for Alphabet show a consensus of moderate buy, with a target price of $233.44, while recent price upgrades have pushed target prices as high as $290.

Mather Group LLC. boosted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 2.6% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 57,958 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 1,457 shares during the quarter. Mather Group LLC.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $10,214,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at about $4,317,606,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 2.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 307.6% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,302,644 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,593,201,000 after purchasing an additional 7,774,811 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 11.4% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 43,865,520 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $6,783,364,000 after purchasing an additional 4,473,901 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 11.8% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 33,403,871 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $5,034,992,000 after purchasing an additional 3,537,173 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on GOOGL. BNP Paribas cut Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. JMP Securities lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $250.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, September 19th. Finally, Citizens Jmp increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $250.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, September 19th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-three have assigned a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $233.44.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $246.54 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $215.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $183.14. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $256.00. The company has a market cap of $2.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.26, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.60 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total transaction of $4,637,754.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,371,905.30. The trade was a 35.65% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $229.73, for a total value of $7,466,225.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,429,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $558,219,089.16. This trade represents a 1.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 258,088 shares of company stock valued at $52,405,304. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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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