Vestcor Inc Purchases 829 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Vestcor Inc increased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 117,651 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 829 shares during the period. Vestcor Inc’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $19,512,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 75.0% in the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 140 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. LMR Partners LLP bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $32,000. Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth $36,000. Denver PWM LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter valued at about $53,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $190.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $210.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. DA Davidson assumed coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $170.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $206.08.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.6 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $195.42 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The firm has a market cap of $2.39 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a 50-day moving average of $172.93 and a 200 day moving average of $170.97. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $130.66 and a 1-year high of $201.42.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the sale, the director now owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 178,957 shares of company stock worth $31,358,687 in the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.