Affiance Financial LLC Increases Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Affiance Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Rating) by 2,040.8% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 8,456 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,061 shares during the period. Affiance Financial LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $809,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 1,884.3% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 17,922,978 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,714,333,000 after buying an additional 17,019,726 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 1,957.3% during the second quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 17,857,280 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,945,783,000 after buying an additional 16,989,271 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 1,830.2% during the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 16,487,668 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,605,074,000 after buying an additional 15,633,495 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 1,821.6% during the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 9,352,658 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $894,580,000 after buying an additional 8,865,958 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James & Associates increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1,927.0% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 8,284,714 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $792,433,000 after purchasing an additional 7,875,993 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 34.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price target on Alphabet from $130.00 to $120.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 26th. Cowen reduced their price target on Alphabet to $135.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 27th. KeyCorp reduced their price target on Alphabet from $125.00 to $120.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 25th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Alphabet to $120.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 27th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reduced their price target on Alphabet from $156.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 26th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $132.13.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 855 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.15, for a total value of $77,933.25. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 25,122 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,289,870.30. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 57,303 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.94, for a total value of $2,059,469.82. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 855 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.15, for a total transaction of $77,933.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 25,122 shares in the company, valued at $2,289,870.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have bought 661,702 shares of company stock valued at $23,399,217 and have sold 190,464 shares valued at $8,535,735. Corporate insiders own 11.44% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.8 %

GOOGL stock opened at $99.79 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $93.12 and its 200-day simple moving average is $101.49. The company has a quick ratio of 2.47, a current ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $83.34 and a 52-week high of $151.55. The firm has a market cap of $1.29 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.82, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.09.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 25th. The information services provider reported $1.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.25 by ($0.19). Alphabet had a return on equity of 26.41% and a net margin of 23.75%. The firm had revenue of $57.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.36 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.40 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 4.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Profile

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Alphabet Inc provides 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 offers products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, hardware, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.