Eagle Asset Management Inc. Has $29.70 Million Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Eagle Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 11.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 165,135 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,807 shares during the period. Eagle Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $29,701,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 9,200.0% in the second quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 186 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the period. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $37,000. HWG Holdings LP bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $40,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 87.3% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the period. Finally, Slocum Gordon & Co LLP bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $44,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on GOOG shares. UBS Group increased their target price on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. DA Davidson upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.56.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.68, for a total transaction of $3,570,300.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,137,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $339,160,251.80. The trade was a 1.04 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at $2,820,779.40. The trade was a 2.60 % 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 valued at $34,673,866 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.6 %

NASDAQ GOOG 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. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $129.40 and a twelve month high of $193.31. The company has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.04. The business’s fifty day moving average is $169.10 and its 200 day moving average is $171.87.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.55 EPS. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company 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 dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.61%.

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.