Channel Wealth LLC Grows Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Channel Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 49,230 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,608 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 2.5% of Channel Wealth LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest position. Channel Wealth LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $8,733,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter worth about $2,622,943,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 18,562.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,237,733,000 after acquiring an additional 14,246,573 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $64,299,725,000 after purchasing an additional 9,687,855 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares during the period. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $786,942,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GOOG. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Roth Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Citizens Jmp raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Pivotal Research raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $245.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $270.00 price target (up previously from $235.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $227.56.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.6%

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $249.85 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $253.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.61, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The business’s 50-day moving average is $207.12 and its 200 day moving average is $180.46.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The business had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.67 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th were issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 8.95%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.44, for a total transaction of $149,664.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,716 shares in the company, valued at $1,425,799.04. The trade was a 9.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total transaction of $4,637,754.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 42,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,371,905.30. This trade represents a 35.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 258,088 shares of company stock worth $52,405,304. 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.