Santori & Peters Inc. Takes $205,000 Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Key Points

• Santori & Peters Inc. has taken a new position in Alphabet Inc. by purchasing 1,157 shares valued at approximately $205,000 during the second quarter.
• Multiple hedge funds, including Vanguard Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., have recently increased their stakes in Alphabet, reflecting growing institutional interest.
• Alphabet reported $2.31 earnings per share for the last quarter, exceeding analyst expectations, with a revenue increase of 13.8% year-over-year.

Santori & Peters Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 1,157 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 2.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $64,299,725,000 after acquiring an additional 9,687,855 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $23,963,208,000 after purchasing an additional 135,064,454 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG increased 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 valued at $3,334,852,000 after purchasing an additional 1,098,996 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Alphabet by 2.2% in the first 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 last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on GOOG shares. Lake Street Capital reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "moderate buy" rating in a research report on Monday, September 8th. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and set a $270.00 target price (up previously from $235.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $230.35.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $246.57 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.98 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 1.01. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $215.38 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $183.72. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $142.66 and a one year high of $256.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.67 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. Alphabet's quarterly revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total transaction of $680,610.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,293 shares in the company, valued at $4,236,785. This represents a 13.84% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $229.73, for a total transaction of $7,466,225.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,429,892 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $558,219,089.16. This represents a 1.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 258,088 shares of company stock worth $52,405,304 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate 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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