Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. Acquires 345 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 56,409 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 345 shares during the period. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $10,743,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 5.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 114,802,133 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,193,768,000 after purchasing an additional 5,655,022 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 10.3% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,334,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,573,125,000 after buying an additional 3,113,395 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 65.9% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 6,294,332 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,052,349,000 after buying an additional 2,500,621 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund grew its position in Alphabet by 182.1% in the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 2,526,055 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $422,331,000 after acquiring an additional 1,630,701 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 9.1% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,424,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,578,793,000 after acquiring an additional 1,291,274 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total transaction of $284,700.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,142,195.20. This trade represents a 6.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total transaction of $232,950.47. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 23,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,007,191.15. This represents a 5.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Pivotal Research boosted their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.13.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $201.90 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.47 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $187.95 and its 200-day moving average is $175.31. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $131.55 and a 1 year high of $203.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.55 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

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.