Benjamin Edwards Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Benjamin Edwards Inc. increased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1,733.2% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 123,192 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 116,472 shares during the quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $20,596,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of GOOG. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 114,802,133 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,193,768,000 after buying an additional 5,655,022 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,334,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,573,125,000 after acquiring an additional 3,113,395 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 1,291,274 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 636,008 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% during 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 acquiring an additional 282,121 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $170.49 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.09 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.61, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $129.40 and a fifty-two week high of $193.31. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average price of $169.98 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $171.82.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm’s revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.55 EPS. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on GOOG. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group raised 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. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total transaction of $3,975,075.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $364,259,266.02. The trade was a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 32,017 shares in the company, 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. Insiders have sold 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,673,866 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.