EP Wealth Advisors LLC Purchases 23,472 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 869,170 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 23,472 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 1.7% of EP Wealth Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. EP Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $158,319,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brandes Investment Partners LP boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.3% during the second quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 414,107 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $75,515,000 after purchasing an additional 13,096 shares in the last quarter. Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at $52,394,000. Gateway Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 4.6% during the second quarter. Gateway Wealth Partners LLC now owns 10,765 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,961,000 after acquiring an additional 472 shares in the last quarter. Newport Capital Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter valued at $1,111,000. Finally, Wallace Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 19.7% in the 2nd quarter. Wallace Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,040 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $554,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on the stock. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $206.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Alphabet from $190.00 to $182.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $208.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Loop Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $170.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Finally, Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $196.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, September 16th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.95.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $162.08 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.00 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.86, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $161.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $167.57. 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 Inc. has a 12-month low of $120.21 and a 12-month high of $191.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.60 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.44 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 12.27%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.84, for a total value of $4,113,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,204,885 shares in the company, valued at $403,141,173.40. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.84, for a total value of $4,113,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,204,885 shares in the company, valued at approximately $403,141,173.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 312,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,765,346. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 216,092 shares of company stock valued at $35,644,136. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

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.