Keynote Financial Services LLC Takes Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Keynote Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 4,910 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $748,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Partnership Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Equitec Proprietary Markets LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.22, for a total value of $3,897,450.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,258,011 shares in the company, valued at approximately $391,132,665.42. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.86, for a total value of $118,572.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,209,888.76. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.22, for a total value of $3,897,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,258,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $391,132,665.42. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 122,308 shares of company stock worth $21,933,775. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.3 %

GOOG traded down $4.05 on Friday, hitting $168.40. 18,907,773 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,999,430. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $179.96 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $162.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $121.46 and a 12 month high of $193.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.07 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.44 EPS. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 3.07%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on GOOG shares. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Rosenblatt Securities lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $182.86.

About Alphabet

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.