Certified Advisory Corp Buys 124 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Certified Advisory Corp lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 17,300 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 124 shares during the period. Certified Advisory Corp’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,892,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOG. Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,424,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,578,793,000 after purchasing an additional 1,291,274 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,657,421 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,688,743,000 after buying an additional 636,008 shares in 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 buying an additional 282,121 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 264,962 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 14.0% during the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 9,903,537 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,655,772,000 after acquiring an additional 1,218,671 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $166.57 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.09, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.04. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $169.10 and its 200-day moving average is $171.87. 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 $129.40 and a 12 month high of $193.31.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.41, for a total transaction of $1,862,805.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 319,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,765,168.06. This represents a 3.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.68, for a total transaction of $3,570,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,137,385 shares in the company, valued at $339,160,251.80. This trade represents a 1.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,673,866 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on GOOG shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group increased their price target on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Pivotal Research boosted their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Five research 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 company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.56.

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.