CWS Financial Advisors LLC Has $387,000 Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

CWS Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 8.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,316 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 178 shares during the quarter. CWS Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $387,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 5,655,022 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 10.3% during the 3rd 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 worth $5,573,125,000 after purchasing an additional 3,113,395 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 9.1% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,424,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,578,793,000 after purchasing an additional 1,291,274 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Alphabet by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,657,421 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,688,743,000 after purchasing an additional 636,008 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 12,327,458 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,261,103,000 after purchasing an additional 282,121 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank initiated coverage on Alphabet in a report on Friday, October 11th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price objective for the company. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group upped their price target on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, DA Davidson raised Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Five 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $170.82 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $129.40 and a 52-week high of $193.31. 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 stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $169.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $171.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.09 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.04.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.61%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total value of $3,975,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,061,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $364,259,266.02. This represents a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 21,467 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.35, for a total value of $3,442,233.45. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 39,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,307,206.90. The trade was a 35.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,673,866 in the last quarter. 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.