Hancock Whitney Corp Increases Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Hancock Whitney Corp boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,040 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 195 shares during the period. Hancock Whitney Corp’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,685,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of GOOG. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at $1,378,708,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 65.9% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. Vima LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 178,253.1% during the 1st quarter. Vima LLC now owns 2,001,122 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $304,691,000 after buying an additional 2,000,000 shares in the last quarter. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 6,610.0% in the 2nd quarter. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,769,160 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $301,312,000 after buying an additional 1,742,794 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its stake 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 worth $1,375,512,000 after buying an additional 1,632,691 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $169.43 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $129.40 and a 1 year high of $193.31. The firm has a market cap of $2.07 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.47, a PEG ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a 50-day moving average of $169.30 and a 200 day moving average of $171.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.55 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the topic of several research reports. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total transaction of $3,975,075.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $364,259,266.02. This represents a 1.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total value of $109,420.08. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 32,017 shares in the company, valued at $5,136,807.48. This trade represents a 2.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 206,795 shares of company stock worth $34,673,866 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.