Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Bought by Opinicus Capital Inc.

Opinicus Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 6,050 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 263 shares during the quarter. Opinicus Capital Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,066,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% during 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 purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $24,857,017,000 after acquiring an additional 4,224,497 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 11.4% during 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 acquiring an additional 4,473,901 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 1.4% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 43,648,514 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,749,806,000 after purchasing an additional 593,345 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its holdings in Alphabet by 1.9% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 39,792,300 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,153,481,000 after purchasing an additional 727,335 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the transaction, the insider owned 42,985 shares in the company, valued at $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 available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.15, for a total transaction of $8,129,875.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,369,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $592,760,192.85. This trade represents a 1.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 225,072 shares of company stock valued at $58,074,027. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $315.00 target price (up previously from $250.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $300.00 price target (up from $265.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, October 27th. CICC Research upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $240.00 to $303.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, HSBC raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $295.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $307.84.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $319.95 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $266.58 and a 200 day simple moving average of $216.93. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $328.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. The company has a market cap of $3.86 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

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.