Charles Schwab Trust Co Grows Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Charles Schwab Trust Co grew its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 22.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,259 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 979 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Trust Co’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,002,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. M&G PLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,240,000. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 116,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,642,000 after buying an additional 14,738 shares during the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 301,980 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $50,488,000 after purchasing an additional 4,292 shares during the last quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 172.9% in the third quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP now owns 91,237 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,254,000 after acquiring an additional 57,810 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Verdence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 63,545 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,624,000 after purchasing an additional 5,892 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six 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 data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $52,329,576.64. The trade was a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total transaction of $232,950.47. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,515 shares in the company, valued at $4,007,191.15. This represents a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $199.58 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $131.55 and a one year high of $203.84. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $186.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $175.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The company has a market cap of $2.44 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.55 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

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.