EP Wealth Advisors LLC Increases Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 19.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,036,909 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 167,739 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up 1.5% of EP Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 14th largest holding. EP Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $171,971,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 43,005.6% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,086,250,000 after acquiring an additional 18,700,111 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 587.4% in the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 10,690,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,772,991,000 after purchasing an additional 9,135,056 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 116.4% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,670,225 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,437,957,000 after purchasing an additional 4,662,809 shares during the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 18,810.2% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,434,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $807,700,000 after purchasing an additional 4,410,811 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 143.7% during the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,072,197 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,288,201,000 after purchasing an additional 4,170,229 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. DA Davidson began coverage on Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $170.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $206.08.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL opened at $189.82 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.32 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.18, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $129.68 and a 12-month high of $195.61. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $171.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $170.63.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.55 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.84, for a total transaction of $230,804.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,927,257.72. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.22, for a total transaction of $291,330.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 23,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,529,987.28. The trade was a 6.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 198,623 shares of company stock valued at $34,413,006 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 11.55% 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.