Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is Roman Butler Fullerton & Co.’s 8th Largest Position

Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 30,061 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,789 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 1.9% of Roman Butler Fullerton & Co.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,792,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Park Avenue Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 11.9% in the 1st quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 109,878 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $16,730,000 after buying an additional 11,646 shares during the last quarter. Investment Partners LTD. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. Investment Partners LTD. now owns 7,446 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,049,000 after purchasing an additional 410 shares in the last quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 47.9% during the 4th quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 50,333 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,094,000 after purchasing an additional 16,295 shares during the last quarter. Apexium Financial LP increased its stake in Alphabet by 335.9% during the 4th quarter. Apexium Financial LP now owns 53,823 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,586,000 after purchasing an additional 41,476 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oak Ridge Investments LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 4.6% in the first quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 187,229 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $28,508,000 after buying an additional 8,201 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock traded up $1.98 on Tuesday, hitting $165.93. 12,342,380 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,503,285. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $121.46 and a 1 year high of $193.31. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $178.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $163.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.05 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.34, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.03, for a total value of $130,424.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 30,024 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,894,812.72. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.03, for a total value of $130,424.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 30,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,894,812.72. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.22, for a total transaction of $3,897,450.00. Following 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 ninety days, insiders sold 144,108 shares of company stock valued at $25,464,954. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.