Retirement Planning Group LLC Boosts Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Retirement Planning Group LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 78.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 12,505 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,502 shares during the quarter. Retirement Planning Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,091,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of GOOG. Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 11,646 shares in the last quarter. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 5.3% in the second quarter. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,126 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $390,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the period. Oak Ridge Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 187,229 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $28,508,000 after acquiring an additional 8,201 shares during the period. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 11,366 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,097,000 after purchasing an additional 498 shares during the period. Finally, Alliance Wealth Management Group grew its stake in Alphabet by 93.6% in the first quarter. Alliance Wealth Management Group now owns 3,910 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $595,000 after purchasing an additional 1,890 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on GOOG. Pivotal Research initiated coverage on Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $215.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $204.00 to $187.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. DA Davidson upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Scotiabank began coverage on Alphabet in a report on Friday. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 target price on the stock. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $186.90.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.07, for a total transaction of $3,759,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,129,306 shares in the company, valued at $355,743,153.42. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.00, for a total transaction of $114,576.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 31,334 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,264,112. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.07, for a total value of $3,759,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,129,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $355,743,153.42. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 216,092 shares of company stock valued at $35,644,136 in the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $164.52 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $121.46 and a 1 year high of $193.31. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $162.81 and its 200-day moving average price is $169.25. The company has a market cap of $2.03 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.23, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 2.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.22 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.44 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Alphabet Company 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.