Lane & Associates LLC Increases Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Lane & Associates LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 7.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 1,859 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the quarter. Lane & Associates LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $311,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% during the second quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,985 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,465,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% during the second quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,880 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $345,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.6% during the second quarter. Investment Advisory Services Inc. TX ADV now owns 3,636 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $667,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the second quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV now owns 2,944 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $540,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Shira Ridge Wealth Management increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% during the second quarter. Shira Ridge Wealth Management now owns 15,490 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,841,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GOOG. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently 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. 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 Inc. has a 52 week low of $129.40 and a 52 week high of $193.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during 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 business’s revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total value of $109,420.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 32,017 shares of the company’s stock, 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. Over the last three months, insiders sold 206,795 shares of company stock worth $34,673,866. Company 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.