Columbia Asset Management Buys 292 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Columbia Asset Management grew its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 39,706 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 292 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 1.3% of Columbia Asset Management’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest position. Columbia Asset Management’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $7,283,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Partnership Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Hoese & Co LLP raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $48,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on GOOG. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lowered shares of 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. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $182.86.

Alphabet Trading Down 4.1 %

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $152.13 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $121.46 and a one year 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 market capitalization of $1.88 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.05. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $172.50 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $165.78.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. Alphabet’s revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.44 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total transaction of $125,126.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 30,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,623,355.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the business’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 directly owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,765,346. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total value of $125,126.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 30,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,623,355.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 200,532 shares of company stock worth $34,055,874 in the last three months. 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.