Cetera Investment Advisers Raises Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 5.3% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,662,406 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 83,857 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $292,966,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Gimbal Financial grew its stake in Alphabet by 1.9% in the second quarter. Gimbal Financial now owns 2,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $489,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. Missouri Trust & Investment Co boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co now owns 16,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,981,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Silver Coast Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Silver Coast Investments LLC now owns 4,317 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $761,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the period. AM Investment Strategies LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. AM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 6,477 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,141,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bfsg LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bfsg LLC now owns 10,428 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,838,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.26, for a total transaction of $800,786.28. Following the transaction, 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. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.06, for a total value of $168,036.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 4,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,264,750.96. This trade represents a 11.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 225,072 shares of company stock valued at $58,074,027 in the last quarter. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. DZ Bank restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on Alphabet from $265.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $300.00 target price (up from $265.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on Alphabet from $280.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have given a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $307.84.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $319.95 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $328.83. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $267.94 and a 200 day moving average of $217.64. 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 company has a market capitalization of $3.86 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.55, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders 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 payout ratio is 8.28%.

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.