Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Acquired by Centurion Wealth Management LLC

Centurion Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 7.7% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 9,447 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 675 shares during the quarter. Centurion Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,676,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GOOG. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter worth approximately $2,622,943,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 18,562.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,237,733,000 after purchasing an additional 14,246,573 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.4% in the first 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 during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 9.9% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares during the period. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $786,942,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on GOOG. Pivotal Research lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $245.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Barclays reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Phillip Securities downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 8th. Citizens Jmp upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $227.56.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $241.38 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $242.57. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $202.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $178.86. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a market cap of $2.92 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.67 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 8.95%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,000 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total value of $200,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 6,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,383,200. This trade represents a 12.63% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at $45,213,984. This represents a 7.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 254,710 shares of company stock worth $49,208,380. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.