Wescott Financial Advisory Group LLC Boosts Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Wescott Financial Advisory Group LLC grew its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 22.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,754 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 321 shares during the quarter. Wescott Financial Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $322,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter valued at about $37,000. Slocum Gordon & Co LLP purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Hoese & Co LLP raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 62.5% in the 2nd quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 260 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $48,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total transaction of $125,126.54. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 30,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,623,355.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total value of $125,126.54. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 30,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,623,355.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total transaction of $5,570,188.20. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 312,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,765,346. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 203,367 shares of company stock worth $34,079,756. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of GOOG opened at $163.64 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.01 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.10, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $121.46 and a 52 week high of $193.31. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $165.32 and its 200-day moving average price is $167.65. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.44 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Wolfe Research upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.