Boston Partners Increases Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Boston Partners increased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 239.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 63,128 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 44,546 shares during the quarter. Boston Partners’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $11,198,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. IFS Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 400.0% during the 2nd quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Robbins Farley grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 60.0% during the second quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 58.7% during the second quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. University of Illinois Foundation bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Fairman Group LLC increased its stake in shares of 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. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,369,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $592,760,192.85. The trade was a 1.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. This trade represents a 29.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 227,850 shares of company stock valued at $58,874,814. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Alphabet from $300.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $260.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. DA Davidson set a $300.00 price target on Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $304.62.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.1%

GOOG opened at $319.95 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $328.67. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $269.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $219.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.86 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%.The business’s revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.12 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.28%.

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.