Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Has $45.05 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 23.1% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 253,957 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 47,603 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $45,049,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $23,963,208,000 after buying an additional 135,064,454 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter valued at about $4,298,572,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 416,753,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $73,927,821,000 after purchasing an additional 5,182,111 shares during the last quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 17,547.9% in the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,122,727 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $731,331,000 after purchasing an additional 4,099,366 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 330.4% in the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,989,463 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $707,691,000 after purchasing an additional 3,062,590 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $310.52 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. The company has a 50-day moving average of $283.75 and a 200-day moving average of $230.73. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $328.67. The company has a market capitalization of $3.75 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.62, a PEG ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.12 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 8th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.28%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Alphabet from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Alphabet from $280.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Raymond James Financial set a $275.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. DA Davidson set a $300.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $313.04.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.66, for a total value of $32,401.32. Following the sale, the director directly owned 18,104 shares in the company, valued at $5,750,916.64. This represents a 0.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.06, for a total value of $168,036.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 4,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,264,750.96. The trade was a 11.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 225,528 shares of company stock worth $61,296,884 in the last quarter. Corporate 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.