Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. Increases Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 80,455 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 836 shares during the quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $14,757,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 0.7% during the second quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,985 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,465,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% during the second quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,880 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $345,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 11.1% during the 1st quarter. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC now owns 600 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $91,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. Shira Ridge Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Shira Ridge Wealth Management now owns 15,490 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,841,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strait & Sound Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Strait & Sound Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,898 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $466,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Rosenblatt Securities cut shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, June 28th. Wolfe Research raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $182.86.

Alphabet Trading Down 3.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG traded down $5.67 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $160.26. The company had a trading volume of 16,338,547 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,478,992. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $178.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $163.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08. The firm has a market cap of $1.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $121.46 and a 1-year high of $193.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.44 EPS. Research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 12.27%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.35, for a total transaction of $3,652,875.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,182,385 shares in the company, valued at $354,310,204.75. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.35, for a total value of $3,652,875.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,182,385 shares in the company, valued at $354,310,204.75. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total transaction of $600,175.38. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 9 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,655.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 121,608 shares of company stock worth $21,567,504 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet 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.