TRU Independence Asset Management 2 LLC Invests $820,000 in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

TRU Independence Asset Management 2 LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 4,945 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $820,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc increased its holdings in Alphabet by 75.0% in the 2nd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 140 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Kings Path Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter valued at about $36,000. Denver PWM LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at about $41,000. Quarry LP acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $53,000. Finally, Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $55,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. China Renaissance raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $217.00 target price (up from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $205.90.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.68, for a total value of $3,570,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,137,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $339,160,251.80. This trade represents a 1.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total value of $429,587.55. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,182 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,421,948.46. This trade represents a 8.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 206,795 shares of company stock worth $34,673,866 in the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $167.65 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $127.90 and a one year high of $191.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.05 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.03. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $167.83 and its 200-day moving average is $170.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.55 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Alphabet 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.