Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Purchased by Advisory Alpha LLC

Advisory Alpha LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 20.7% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 27,092 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,650 shares during the quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,775,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after acquiring an additional 14,307,345 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 11.4% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 43,865,520 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,783,364,000 after purchasing an additional 4,473,901 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Alphabet by 1.4% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 43,648,514 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,749,806,000 after purchasing an additional 593,345 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 39,792,300 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,153,481,000 after purchasing an additional 727,335 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 38,556,577 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,962,389,000 after buying an additional 104,859 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL opened at $278.83 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $291.59. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $251.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $204.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total transaction of $4,408,034.72. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. The trade was a 29.30% 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, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $229.73, for a total value of $7,466,225.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,429,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $558,219,089.16. This trade represents a 1.32% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 222,396 shares of company stock worth $54,105,275 in the last quarter. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $236.00 to $268.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Melius Research boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $255.00 in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Roth Capital upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Loop Capital lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Alphabet from $270.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $304.10.

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.