Lane & Associates LLC Raises Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Lane & Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 7.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,859 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 130 shares during the quarter. Lane & Associates LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $311,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.1% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,424,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,578,793,000 after buying an additional 1,291,274 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Alphabet by 4.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,657,421 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,688,743,000 after purchasing an additional 636,008 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in Alphabet by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 12,327,458 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,261,103,000 after purchasing an additional 282,121 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Alphabet by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,843,149,000 after purchasing an additional 264,962 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service raised its position in Alphabet by 14.0% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 9,903,537 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,655,772,000 after purchasing an additional 1,218,671 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Pivotal Research upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Stock Performance

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 fifty-two week low of $129.40 and a fifty-two week high of $193.31. The stock has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.04. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $169.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $171.86.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.55 EPS. Analysts expect 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 paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.78, for a total transaction of $1,898,190.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 330,466 shares in the company, valued at approximately $59,741,643.48. The trade was a 3.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,673,866. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.