Ballast Inc. Has $918,000 Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Ballast Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 21.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,007 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 884 shares during the period. Ballast Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $918,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Partnership Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Equitec Proprietary Markets LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $28,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $34,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $182.86.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG traded down $1.44 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $163.95. 12,425,872 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,555,973. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $178.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $163.51. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $121.46 and a 12 month 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. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.03 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.35, for a total value of $3,652,875.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,182,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $354,310,204.75. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.86, for a total transaction of $118,572.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,209,888.76. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.35, for a total transaction of $3,652,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,182,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $354,310,204.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 143,308 shares of company stock valued at $25,334,530 in the last three months. 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.