Waddell & Associates LLC Raises Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Waddell & Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 13,309 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 320 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises approximately 0.3% of Waddell & Associates LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 29th biggest holding. Waddell & Associates LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,441,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Capital International Investors boosted its position in Alphabet by 9.3% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,355,724,000 after acquiring an additional 7,470,042 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 19.7% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,815,986,000 after purchasing an additional 13,876,534 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 45,731,826 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,963,128,000 after purchasing an additional 979,083 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 35,558,778 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,414,179,000 after purchasing an additional 684,968 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $4,101,040,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities lowered shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Friday, June 28th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Two research 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $182.86.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.40, for a total value of $3,991,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,213,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $392,588,151.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of Alphabet 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,655.91. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.40, for a total transaction of $3,991,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,213,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $392,588,151.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 201,867 shares of company stock valued at $34,218,581 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $150.01 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.85 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.01, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $171.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $166.00. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $121.46 and a twelve month high of $193.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.44 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.27%.

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.