Bailard Inc. Grows Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Bailard Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 9.9% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 104,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,362 shares during the period. Bailard Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $18,464,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,901,000 after acquiring an additional 6,410 shares during the period. Cable Hill Partners LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 6.8% in the 1st quarter. Cable Hill Partners LLC now owns 9,781 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,574,000 after purchasing an additional 624 shares during the last quarter. Grandfield & Dodd LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 7.6% in the 1st quarter. Grandfield & Dodd LLC now owns 21,498 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,359,000 after purchasing an additional 1,518 shares during the last quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 0.7% in the first quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC now owns 1,211,074 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $189,206,000 after purchasing an additional 8,617 shares during the period. Finally, FWG Holdings LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 6.6% during the first quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 8,069 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,308,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on GOOG. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $260.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Hsbc Global Res raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Finally, DA Davidson set a $825.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, October 27th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.81.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the transaction, the insider owned 42,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,635,348.70. This represents a 29.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total value of $680,610.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,236,785. This trade represents a 13.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 221,796 shares of company stock worth $53,983,001. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $287.43 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $256.07 and a 200-day simple moving average of $208.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $142.66 and a one year high of $292.36. The company has a market cap of $3.47 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.12 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 8.28%.

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.