Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Purchased by Baupost Group LLC MA

Baupost Group LLC MA increased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 26.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,633,988 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 556,000 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 11.3% of Baupost Group LLC MA’s investment portfolio, making the stock its largest holding. Baupost Group LLC MA’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $467,243,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. IFS Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 400.0% during the second quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Robbins Farley lifted its position in Alphabet by 60.0% in the 2nd quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 58.7% during the 2nd quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. University of Illinois Foundation bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Fairman Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 121.3% in the second quarter. Fairman Group LLC now owns 177 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup reiterated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $260.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $285.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $310.54.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, 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 transaction of $8,129,875.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,369,619 shares in the company, valued at $592,760,192.85. This represents a 1.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,635,348.70. The trade was a 29.30% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 228,906 shares of company stock worth $62,127,158. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $322.09 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.89 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.07. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $328.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $276.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $224.86.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.12 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 8th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

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.