Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stake Raised by Essential Planning LLC.

Essential Planning LLC. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 3,617 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the period. Essential Planning LLC.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $600,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 75.0% during the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 140 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. Kings Path Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth about $36,000. Denver PWM LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Finally, Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $55,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. China Renaissance upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $210.00 price target (up from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.90.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $168.95 on Monday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $127.90 and a 1 year high of $191.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.07 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.03. The company’s 50-day moving average is $168.47 and its 200 day moving average is $170.31. 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:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.55 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % 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 2,835 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total transaction of $429,587.55. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now 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. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,673,866. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.