Smart Money Group LLC Raises Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Smart Money Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 7.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,644 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 463 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 0.4% of Smart Money Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Smart Money Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,171,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the first quarter valued at $4,317,606,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $78,839,544,000 after buying an additional 14,307,345 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 11.4% in the 1st 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 last quarter. Amundi increased its holdings in Alphabet by 11.8% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 33,403,871 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,034,992,000 after acquiring an additional 3,537,173 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Evergreen Quality Fund GP Ltd. raised its position in Alphabet by 178.3% during the first quarter. Evergreen Quality Fund GP Ltd. now owns 4,003,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $619,163,000 after acquiring an additional 2,565,400 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on GOOGL. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $343.00 price target (up from $280.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Tigress Financial raised their price target on Alphabet from $240.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. CICC Research upped their price objective on Alphabet from $240.00 to $303.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Daiwa Capital Markets increased their price objective on Alphabet from $233.00 to $333.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have issued a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $305.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the insider owned 42,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,635,348.70. This trade represents a 29.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.05, for a total transaction of $694,638.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 14,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,629,725.80. This trade represents a 16.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 189,896 shares of company stock valued at $47,653,637. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.3%

GOOGL opened at $284.28 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $293.95. The business has a 50-day moving average of $259.16 and a two-hundred day moving average of $211.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.43 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be given a $0.21 dividend. 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.28%.

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.