Copley Financial Group Inc. Buys Shares of 5,751 Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 5,751 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $962,000. Alphabet makes up about 0.9% of Copley Financial Group Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest holding.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 9,200.0% in the 2nd quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 186 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $37,000. Finally, HWG Holdings LP bought a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on GOOG. Scotiabank began coverage on Alphabet in a research note on Friday, October 11th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price target for the company. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG traded down $0.13 during trading on Friday, hitting $193.50. The company had a trading volume of 3,297,731 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,594,035. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $131.06 and a 12 month high of $196.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.37 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.02. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $172.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $172.12.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm’s revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.55 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.84, for a total transaction of $230,804.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,927,257.72. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 282,832 shares in the company, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 197,123 shares of company stock worth $34,121,676. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

About Alphabet

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.