StoneX Group Inc. Boosts Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

StoneX Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 21,491 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 659 shares during the quarter. StoneX Group Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,593,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. WESPAC Advisors LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 4.9% during the third quarter. WESPAC Advisors LLC now owns 2,602 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $435,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. Lane & Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter. Lane & Associates LLC now owns 1,859 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $311,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the period. Truepoint Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.2% during the third quarter. Truepoint Inc. now owns 3,017 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $504,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares during the last quarter. Towercrest Capital Management grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.7% in the third quarter. Towercrest Capital Management now owns 4,171 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $697,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the period. Finally, Palisade Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 5.0% in the third quarter. Palisade Asset Management LLC now owns 8,346 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,395,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GOOG. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, October 11th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price objective for the company. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.6 %

GOOG opened at $166.57 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $169.10 and its 200-day moving average is $171.86. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $129.40 and a 52-week high of $193.31. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $2.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.55 EPS. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.61%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.78, for a total value of $1,898,190.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 330,466 shares in the company, valued at approximately $59,741,643.48. This represents a 3.08 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, 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 90 days, insiders 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.