HCR Wealth Advisors Increases Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

HCR Wealth Advisors increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 97,377 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,484 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 2.5% of HCR Wealth Advisors’ portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. HCR Wealth Advisors’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $23,925,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 17.9% during the first quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 88,187 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,637,000 after acquiring an additional 13,371 shares in the last quarter. Alaethes Wealth LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 1.1% during the first quarter. Alaethes Wealth LLC now owns 7,646 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,182,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the period. Moment Partners LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 9.3% in the 2nd quarter. Moment Partners LLC now owns 5,896 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,039,000 after buying an additional 504 shares during the last quarter. Welch Group LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.0% in the second quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 64,262 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,325,000 after purchasing an additional 2,467 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp increased its position in Alphabet by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 2,546,012 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $448,684,000 after buying an additional 56,295 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $260.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $315.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, December 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Alphabet from $288.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $224.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Citic Securities raised their price target on Alphabet from $230.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have issued a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $315.18.

Alphabet Trading Down 3.2%

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $296.72 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $286.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $232.35. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $328.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.58 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. 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 business had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 8th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.28%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total value of $867,569.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 8,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,798,832.60. This represents a 23.66% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.66, for a total value of $32,401.32. Following the transaction, the director owned 18,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,750,916.64. This trade represents a 0.56% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 226,128 shares of company stock valued at $63,183,331. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.