Montecito Bank & Trust Purchases 9,648 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Montecito Bank & Trust lifted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 22.8% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 52,047 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,648 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 1.5% of Montecito Bank & Trust’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Montecito Bank & Trust’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $8,632,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.6% during the second quarter. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,620 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $295,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the period. Hengehold Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Hengehold Capital Management LLC now owns 7,224 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,316,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 75.0% during the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 140 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. First PREMIER Bank grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.8% in the third quarter. First PREMIER Bank now owns 1,655 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $275,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. Finally, MKT Advisors LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 0.8% in the third quarter. MKT Advisors LLC now owns 7,363 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,221,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GOOGL. Scotiabank raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. DA Davidson started coverage on Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $170.00 price objective on the stock. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Alphabet from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.90.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $175.98 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $167.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $170.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a market cap of $2.15 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $127.90 and a 12-month high of $191.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 business earned $1.55 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.61%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.68, for a total value of $3,570,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,137,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $339,160,251.80. This represents a 1.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total value 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 184,295 shares of company stock valued at $30,698,791 over the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.