Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Acquired by Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc.

Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 211,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,583 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 1.9% of Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 18th biggest holding. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $35,358,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GOOG. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Alphabet in the first quarter valued at about $1,378,708,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Alphabet by 65.9% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 6,294,332 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,052,349,000 after purchasing an additional 2,500,621 shares during the period. Vima LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 178,253.1% in the first quarter. Vima LLC now owns 2,001,122 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $304,691,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000,000 shares during the period. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 6,610.0% in the second quarter. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,769,160 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $301,312,000 after purchasing an additional 1,742,794 shares during the period. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its position in Alphabet by 27.8% in the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 7,499,245 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,375,512,000 after purchasing an additional 1,632,691 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the topic of several research reports. Seaport Res Ptn raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Scotiabank began coverage on Alphabet in a research note on Friday, October 11th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 target price for the company. Finally, Pivotal Research raised their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $166.57 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The business has a 50 day moving average of $169.10 and a two-hundred day moving average of $171.86. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $129.40 and a 52 week high of $193.31. The company has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.09, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.55 earnings per share. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total transaction of $429,587.55. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,421,948.46. The trade was a 8.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.78, for a total value of $1,898,190.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 330,466 shares in the company, valued at approximately $59,741,643.48. This trade represents a 3.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 206,795 shares of company stock worth $34,673,866 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.