2,700 Shares in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Acquired by AdvisorShares Investments LLC

AdvisorShares Investments LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 2,700 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $476,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in Alphabet by 242.9% in the 1st quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 168 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the period. IMA Advisory Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth $28,000. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 85.7% in the 1st quarter. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC now owns 195 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. grew its position in Alphabet by 36.4% during the second quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus set a $333.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. DZ Bank reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Guggenheim raised their price target on Alphabet from $280.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. CICC Research boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $240.00 to $303.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets set a $294.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $304.10.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL opened at $290.10 on Tuesday. 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 $3.51 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $252.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $205.82. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $291.59.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) 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. On average, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 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%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $291.80, for a total value of $32,681.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 18,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,253,567.20. This represents a 0.62% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 954 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.33, for a total value of $269,342.82. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 14,517 shares in the company, valued at $4,098,584.61. This represents a 6.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 222,396 shares of company stock worth $54,105,275. Insiders own 11.64% 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.