Running Oak Capital LLC Raises Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Running Oak Capital LLC lifted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 7.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 89,677 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 6,263 shares during the period. Running Oak Capital LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $14,010,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 111.8% in the 1st quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 161 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOG opened at $167.73 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $166.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $176.39. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70. The stock has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 18.70, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on GOOG shares. Tigress Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $171.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Westpark Capital reissued a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.88.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.68, for a total transaction of $5,742,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,555,196 shares in the company, valued at approximately $451,452,029.28. This represents a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 228,070 shares of company stock worth $37,745,632 in the last three months. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.