Confluence Wealth Services Inc. Has $5.47 Million Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Confluence Wealth Services Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 30,820 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the period. Confluence Wealth Services Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,467,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 135,064,454 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the first quarter valued at approximately $2,622,943,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake 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 valued at $64,299,725,000 after acquiring an additional 9,687,855 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake 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 valued at $15,971,861,000 after acquiring an additional 9,243,959 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio bought a new position in Alphabet in the first quarter valued at approximately $369,713,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total transaction of $5,992,350.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,527,392 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $466,000,536.96. This trade represents a 1.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 276,738 shares of company stock valued at $59,135,475. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG stock opened at $245.46 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $225.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $188.71. The company has a market capitalization of $2.97 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.14, a PEG ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $256.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, 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 was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.95%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. KeyCorp set a $265.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $186.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $237.68.

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.