Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Boosts Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 4.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,657,421 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 636,008 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 0.7% of Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned 0.12% of Alphabet worth $2,688,743,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Richardson Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at $37,000. Slocum Gordon & Co LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at $44,000. Hoese & Co LLP raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 62.5% in the 2nd quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 260 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at $48,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on GOOG. DA Davidson upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Wolfe Research upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Friday, June 28th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $182.86.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $158.99 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $168.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $166.48. The stock has a market cap of $1.96 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $121.46 and a 1 year 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.44 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total transaction of $600,175.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,655.91. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total value of $600,175.38. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,655.91. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total value of $125,126.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 30,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,623,355.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 202,667 shares of company stock valued at $34,341,581. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.