LFL Advisers LLC Acquires 3,786 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

LFL Advisers LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.2% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 123,638 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,786 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 8.8% of LFL Advisers LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. LFL Advisers LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $21,932,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Alphabet by 1.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 416,753,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $73,927,821,000 after purchasing an additional 5,182,111 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $23,963,208,000 after purchasing an additional 135,064,454 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 107,760,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,022,926,000 after purchasing an additional 441,177 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,971,861,000 after buying an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% during the 2nd quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 35,357,943 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,272,146,000 after buying an additional 2,117,990 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on GOOG. Loop Capital raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $285.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $307.22.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $296.64, for a total transaction of $9,640,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,304,619 shares in the company, valued at approximately $683,642,180.16. The trade was a 1.39% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.66, for a total value of $32,401.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 18,104 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,750,916.64. This trade represents a 0.56% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 196,406 shares of company stock worth $51,743,408 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of GOOG opened at $318.39 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $275.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $223.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.84 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.40, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.07. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $328.67. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. 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 business had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.12 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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