Douglas Lane & Associates LLC Has $176.79 Million Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Douglas Lane & Associates LLC reduced its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 928,344 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,389 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 2.5% of Douglas Lane & Associates LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $176,794,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 5.2% in 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 during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10.3% in the third 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 valued at $5,573,125,000 after buying an additional 3,113,395 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings 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 during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its position in Alphabet by 27.8% during the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 7,499,245 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,375,512,000 after buying an additional 1,632,691 shares during the period. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund grew its holdings in Alphabet by 182.1% during the 3rd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 2,526,055 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $422,331,000 after acquiring an additional 1,630,701 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GOOG. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG traded down $0.12 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $196.59. 8,214,142 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,984,667. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $182.87 and a 200-day moving average of $174.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $131.55 and a one year high of $202.88. The firm has a market cap of $2.41 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.07, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.55 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.30, for a total value of $3,741,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,106,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $350,361,837.80. This represents a 1.06 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.23, for a total value of $473,929.82. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 26,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,406,343.27. This represents a 9.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 155,887 shares of company stock worth $27,996,356. 12.99% of the stock is currently 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.