ARK Investment Management LLC Boosts Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

ARK Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 133,766 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,004 shares during the quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $23,729,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $64,299,725,000 after buying an additional 9,687,855 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $23,963,208,000 after buying an additional 135,064,454 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after buying an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.4% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 21,345,784 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,334,852,000 after buying an additional 1,098,996 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,380,073 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,183,979,000 after buying an additional 440,526 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Barclays reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Raymond James Financial set a $275.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Scotiabank reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $310.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, KeyCorp set a $265.00 price target on Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $249.68.

Alphabet Stock Up 2.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $260.51 on Friday. 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 business has a fifty day moving average of $237.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $196.32. The stock has a market cap of $3.15 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.74, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $262.51.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.05, for a total value of $694,638.90. Following the completion of the sale, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 42,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. The trade was a 29.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 246,150 shares of company stock worth $55,805,379 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.