McNaughton Wealth Management LLC Grows Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

McNaughton Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 6.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 8,323 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 529 shares during the quarter. McNaughton Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,467,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Missouri Trust & Investment Co increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co now owns 16,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,981,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the period. AM Investment Strategies LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. AM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 6,477 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,141,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. Bfsg LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bfsg LLC now owns 10,428 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,838,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the period. Financial Council LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Financial Council LLC now owns 5,800 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,022,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. Finally, Enzi Wealth increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Enzi Wealth now owns 2,561 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $408,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Westpark Capital lifted their price target on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $218.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Melius Research raised their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $255.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Alphabet from $230.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, September 21st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $245.88.

Alphabet Stock Down 2.1%

Alphabet stock opened at $236.57 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $226.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $188.84. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $256.00. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $2.86 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.19, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The company had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.60 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 8.95%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 103 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.13, for a total transaction of $25,042.39. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 17,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,202,258.92. The trade was a 0.59% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. This represents a 29.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 276,338 shares of company stock worth $59,062,683 in the last quarter. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.