Intech Investment Management LLC Grows Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 26.5% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 821,450 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 172,077 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 1.5% of Intech Investment Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Intech Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $137,338,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Cornerstone Advisors LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Cornerstone Advisors LLC now owns 591,000 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $98,809,000 after acquiring an additional 3,600 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lifted its position in Alphabet by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 210,657 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $35,220,000 after acquiring an additional 2,151 shares during the period. Moran Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Moran Wealth Management LLC now owns 110,852 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $18,533,000 after acquiring an additional 1,706 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 64,824 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,838,000 after acquiring an additional 689 shares during the period. Finally, EagleClaw Capital Managment LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. EagleClaw Capital Managment LLC now owns 55,577 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,292,000 after purchasing an additional 2,325 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total transaction of $429,587.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,182 shares in the company, valued at $4,421,948.46. This trade represents a 8.85 % 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, insider John Kent Walker sold 21,467 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 39,334 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,307,206.90. This represents a 35.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 184,295 shares of company stock worth $30,698,791 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Pivotal Research lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG stock opened at $177.33 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $129.40 and a one year high of $193.31. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $168.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $171.91. 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 has a market capitalization of $2.17 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.55 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate 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. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is 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.