Davis Selected Advisers Acquires 4,380 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Davis Selected Advisers grew its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 675,447 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,380 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 0.7% of Davis Selected Advisers’ portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest holding. Davis Selected Advisers’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $123,890,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter worth $37,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Slocum Gordon & Co LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter worth $44,000. Hoese & Co LLP increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 62.5% in the second quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 260 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter worth $48,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GOOG. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Rosenblatt Securities cut shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $182.86.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOG opened at $152.15 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $121.46 and a fifty-two week high of $193.31. 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 company has a fifty day moving average of $170.36 and a 200 day moving average of $165.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.87 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.34, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.44 earnings per share. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total transaction of $600,175.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 9 shares in the company, valued at $1,655.91. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total value of $600,175.38. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 9 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,655.91. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total transaction of $429,587.55. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,421,948.46. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 201,867 shares of company stock worth $34,218,581 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.