Candriam S.C.A. Grows Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Candriam S.C.A. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 950,766 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 35,977 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up 1.0% of Candriam S.C.A.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. Candriam S.C.A.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $168,664,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. IFS Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 400.0% in the second quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Robbins Farley raised its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 58.7% during the 2nd quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Fairman Group LLC grew 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 worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter worth $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. HSBC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $335.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Alphabet from $300.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $330.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities set a $279.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.81.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $287.43 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $256.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $208.20. The firm has a market cap of $3.47 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $292.36. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.12 EPS. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total transaction of $680,610.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 17,293 shares in the company, valued at $4,236,785. This represents a 13.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, 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 value of $8,129,875.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,369,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $592,760,192.85. This represents a 1.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 221,796 shares of company stock worth $53,983,001 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet 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.