Woodard & Co. Asset Management Group Inc. ADV Buys 1,617 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Key Points

• Woodard & Co. Asset Management Group Inc. ADV increased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. by 8.4% to $3.27 million during the first quarter, making it the firm's 28th largest investment.
• Alphabet reported a quarterly EPS of $2.31, exceeding estimates by $0.19, with revenue up 13.8% year-over-year at $96.43 billion.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, resulting in an annualized payout of $0.84 and a yield of 0.43%.

Woodard & Co. Asset Management Group Inc. ADV increased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 8.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 20,952 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 1,617 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 0.7% of Woodard & Co. Asset Management Group Inc. ADV's holdings, making the stock its 28th biggest position. Woodard & Co. Asset Management Group Inc. ADV's holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,273,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 111.8% in the first quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the first quarter worth about $26,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Graybill Wealth Management LTD. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter worth about $44,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an "equal weight" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. KeyCorp cut their price objective 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. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $210.00 price target (up previously from $185.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Westpark Capital reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $215.19.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 400 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owned 6,013 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,094,245.74. This trade represents a 6.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total transaction of $5,992,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,527,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 90 days, insiders sold 249,298 shares of company stock valued at $43,505,967. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 2.3%

NASDAQ:GOOG traded down $4.49 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $192.95. 16,806,079 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 24,272,494. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $178.54 and a 200 day moving average price of $174.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick 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 $208.70. The firm has a market cap of $2.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.54, a PEG ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released 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 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 earned $1.89 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's payout ratio is 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.