Palo Alto Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires 249,329 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Palo Alto Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 320.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 327,081 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 249,329 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 22.5% of Palo Alto Wealth Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its largest position. Palo Alto Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $54,230,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings 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 worth $13,355,724,000 after buying an additional 7,470,042 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 19.7% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,815,986,000 after purchasing an additional 13,876,534 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 45,731,826 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,963,128,000 after purchasing an additional 979,083 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 35,558,778 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,414,179,000 after buying an additional 684,968 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,657,421 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,688,743,000 after buying an additional 636,008 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the sale, the director now owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,820,779.40. The trade was a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total value of $109,420.08. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 32,017 shares in the company, valued at $5,136,807.48. The trade was a 2.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,471,141. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $177.35 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $166.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $171.57. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $129.40 and a twelve month high of $193.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.17 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.55 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on GOOG. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.56.

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.