SG Americas Securities LLC Buys 691,840 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 20.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,063,570 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 691,840 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 3.2% of SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest position. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $773,866,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. MBB Public Markets I LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3,586.8% in the 2nd quarter. MBB Public Markets I LLC now owns 361,788 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $66,359,000 after purchasing an additional 351,975 shares during the period. Matrix Private Capital Group LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 6.0% in the 2nd quarter. Matrix Private Capital Group LLC now owns 2,110 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $387,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Marathon Capital Management lifted its stake in Alphabet by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. Marathon Capital Management now owns 11,320 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,076,000 after acquiring an additional 755 shares in the last quarter. Lummis Asset Management LP boosted its position in Alphabet by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Lummis Asset Management LP now owns 18,959 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,477,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Select Equity Group L.P. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 624,862 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $114,612,000 after acquiring an additional 8,807 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total transaction of $550,702.88. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,468,029.04. This trade represents a 13.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.22, for a total value of $291,330.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 23,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,529,987.28. This trade represents a 6.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.2 %

Alphabet stock opened at $201.90 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $131.55 and a twelve month high of $203.84. The stock has a market cap of $2.47 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $187.39 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $175.23. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.55 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Citizens Jmp cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Citigroup raised their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group upped their target price on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.13.

Alphabet 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.