Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC Grows Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 13.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 454,450 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 54,352 shares during the quarter. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $80,088,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Gimbal Financial boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Gimbal Financial now owns 2,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $489,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the second quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co now owns 16,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,981,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the period. Silver Coast Investments LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 1.3% during the second quarter. Silver Coast Investments LLC now owns 4,317 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $761,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. AM Investment Strategies LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. AM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 6,477 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,141,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. Finally, Bfsg LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bfsg LLC now owns 10,428 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,838,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $375.00 target price (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $315.00 price target (up previously from $250.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $240.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Finally, New Street Research raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $275.00 to $295.00 in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have given a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $312.06.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $315.81 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $328.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.81 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.15, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.07. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $271.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $221.67.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion for 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%. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total transaction of $4,408,034.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. This represents a 29.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total value of $680,610.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 17,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,236,785. This represents a 13.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 193,628 shares of company stock worth $50,942,622. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.