Nicholas Investment Partners LP Grows Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Nicholas Investment Partners LP lifted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 21,224 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 861 shares during the period. Nicholas Investment Partners LP’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,893,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Richardson Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter worth $37,000. Slocum Gordon & Co LLP purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at $44,000. Hoese & Co LLP increased its stake 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 worth $45,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth $48,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on GOOG shares. DA Davidson upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. 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 research report on Friday, June 28th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price target on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $182.86.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.8 %

GOOG opened at $158.37 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $121.46 and a 52 week high of $193.31. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $169.06 and a 200-day simple moving average of $166.15. The firm has a market cap of $1.95 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its 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. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.44 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 0.51%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total value of $429,587.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,182 shares in the company, valued at $4,421,948.46. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total transaction of $429,587.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,421,948.46. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.68, for a total transaction of $3,570,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,137,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $339,160,251.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 201,867 shares of company stock worth $34,218,581 in the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.