Associated Banc Corp Lowers Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Associated Banc Corp cut its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 103,380 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,258 shares during the quarter. Associated Banc Corp’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $18,339,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. IFS Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 400.0% in the second quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Robbins Farley boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 60.0% in the 2nd quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the period. WestEnd Advisors LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 58.7% in the 2nd quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Fairman Group LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 121.3% during the second quarter. Fairman Group LLC now owns 177 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares during the period. Finally, University of Illinois Foundation purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter valued at about $31,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on GOOG. Scotiabank set a $336.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $310.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Mizuho set a $325.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Raymond James Financial set a $275.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price objective on Alphabet from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $324.81.

Alphabet Stock Up 6.3%

Shares of GOOG opened at $318.47 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The business has a fifty day moving average of $264.32 and a 200 day moving average of $215.82. The company has a market cap of $3.84 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $319.80.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. The business’s revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.12 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect 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. Investors of record on Monday, December 8th will be given a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 8.28%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $291.80, for a total transaction of $32,681.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 18,004 shares in the company, valued at $5,253,567.20. This trade represents a 0.62% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $288.26, for a total transaction of $800,786.28. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 11,739 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,383,884.14. This represents a 19.14% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 227,952 shares of company stock worth $58,896,009 in the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.