Ceredex Value Advisors LLC Increases Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Ceredex Value Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 44.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 235,214 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 72,536 shares during the period. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $39,010,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 43,005.6% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $31,086,250,000 after purchasing an additional 18,700,111 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 587.4% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 10,690,326 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,772,991,000 after buying an additional 9,135,056 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in Alphabet by 14.4% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $8,724,251,000 after buying an additional 7,275,757 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 116.4% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,670,225 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,437,957,000 after buying an additional 4,662,809 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 18,810.2% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,434,260 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $807,700,000 after acquiring an additional 4,410,811 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 21,467 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.35, for a total transaction of $3,442,233.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 39,334 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,307,206.90. This represents a 35.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.66, for a total transaction of $3,772,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,159,885 shares in the company, valued at $362,126,319.10. This represents a 1.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,471,141 in the last quarter. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. Guggenheim upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Pivotal Research raised their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Alphabet from $206.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, DA Davidson started coverage on Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $170.00 target price on the stock. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $205.90.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock traded down $3.09 during trading on Friday, hitting $172.49. The stock had a trading volume of 32,481,654 shares, compared to its average volume of 27,145,184. The stock has a market cap of $2.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. The company's 50 day moving average price is $165.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $170.08. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $127.90 and a 1-year high of $191.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.55 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

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.