Key Financial Inc Boosts Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Key Financial Inc increased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.7% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 7,380 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the quarter. Key Financial Inc’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,354,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $4,101,040,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 19.7% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,815,986,000 after purchasing an additional 13,876,534 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,378,708,000. Capital International Investors lifted its position in Alphabet by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,355,724,000 after acquiring an additional 7,470,042 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Alphabet by 51.8% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,416,150 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $976,923,000 after acquiring an additional 2,190,795 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $182.86.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.66, for a total transaction of $3,772,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,159,885 shares in the company, valued at approximately $362,126,319.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.66, for a total transaction of $3,772,350.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,159,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $362,126,319.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.86, for a total transaction of $118,572.52. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,209,888.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 179,065 shares of company stock worth $31,025,543. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOG opened at $165.11 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.32, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a fifty day moving average of $175.40 and a 200 day moving average of $165.01. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $121.46 and a fifty-two week high of $193.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.44 earnings per share. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 12.27%.

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.