Ransom Advisory Ltd Buys Shares of 31,334 Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Ransom Advisory Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 31,334 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,895,000. Alphabet comprises 2.4% of Ransom Advisory Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest holding.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the 1st 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. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% in the 1st 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. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 34,103,417 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,494,655,000 after purchasing an additional 769,335 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.4% in the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 21,345,784 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,334,852,000 after purchasing an additional 1,098,996 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,380,073 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,183,979,000 after purchasing an additional 440,526 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.5%

Shares of GOOG opened at $239.94 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $240.59. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $199.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $177.55. The firm has a market cap of $2.90 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.01.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the topic of several recent research reports. KeyCorp set a $265.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Monday. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $210.00 target price (up from $185.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $227.56.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total transaction of $4,637,754.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,371,905.30. This represents a 35.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 8th. The shares were 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 $1,383,200. This represents a 12.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 254,710 shares of company stock valued at $49,208,380 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.