Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. Purchases 12,080 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. increased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 641,230 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,080 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 0.9% of Jupiter Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $113,748,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. RDA Financial Network lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter. RDA Financial Network now owns 11,094 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,968,000 after acquiring an additional 554 shares during the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1.4% in the second quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 170,020 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $30,160,000 after buying an additional 2,304 shares in the last quarter. Oldfather Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter valued at approximately $213,000. Tower View Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.9% during the second quarter. Tower View Wealth Management LLC now owns 27,644 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,904,000 after acquiring an additional 1,776 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dock Street Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% during the second quarter. Dock Street Asset Management Inc. now owns 234,306 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $41,563,000 after acquiring an additional 1,970 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GOOG. Rosenblatt Securities set a $279.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $310.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Hsbc Global Res raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Pivotal Research boosted their target price on Alphabet from $300.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Alphabet from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $324.81.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG opened at $287.43 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.47 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $256.07 and its 200-day moving average price is $208.20. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $292.36.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.12 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 8.28%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total value of $680,610.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,236,785. This represents a 13.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.15, for a total value of $8,129,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,369,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $592,760,192.85. This trade represents a 1.35% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 221,796 shares of company stock worth $53,983,001. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.