Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Bought by Saturna Capital Corp

Saturna Capital Corp boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 12.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,951 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 217 shares during the quarter. Saturna Capital Corp’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $346,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,901,000 after buying an additional 6,410 shares during the period. GW&K Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 4,169 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $651,000 after acquiring an additional 156 shares in the last quarter. Ignite Planners LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 9.6% during the 1st quarter. Ignite Planners LLC now owns 14,362 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,338,000 after acquiring an additional 1,253 shares in the last quarter. PFG Advisors boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 33.2% during the 1st quarter. PFG Advisors now owns 61,458 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,602,000 after acquiring an additional 15,327 shares during the period. Finally, Oakwell Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at about $410,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research reports. HSBC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $335.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Alphabet from $280.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Pivotal Research lifted their target price on Alphabet from $300.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $330.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities set a $279.00 price target on Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.81.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.05, for a total value of $694,638.90. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 14,516 shares in the company, valued at $3,629,725.80. This represents a 16.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total transaction of $4,408,034.72. Following the sale, the insider owned 42,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,635,348.70. This represents a 29.30% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 189,896 shares of company stock valued at $47,653,637 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $284.96 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $3.44 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.10, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $259.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $211.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $294.52.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%.Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.12 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 8.28%.

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.