Ashburton Jersey Ltd Acquires New Shares in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Ashburton Jersey Ltd bought a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 7,256 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,328,000. Alphabet accounts for 0.6% of Ashburton Jersey Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 21st biggest holding.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,724,251,000 after acquiring an additional 7,275,757 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 493,810,251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $68,980,354,000 after acquiring an additional 6,374,756 shares in the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 18,810.2% in the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,434,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $807,700,000 after acquiring an additional 4,410,811 shares in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 143.7% in the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,072,197 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,288,201,000 after acquiring an additional 4,170,229 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 91.0% in the 2nd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 7,928,470 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,450,599,000 after acquiring an additional 3,777,527 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on GOOGL. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $206.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Argus boosted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Loop Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $170.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.95.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $163.24 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $161.37 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $167.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 2.08. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $120.21 and a 1 year high of $191.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.04, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.60 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.44 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.84, for a total value of $4,113,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,204,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $403,141,173.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.84, for a total value of $230,804.28. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,927,257.72. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.84, for a total transaction of $4,113,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,204,885 shares in the company, valued at approximately $403,141,173.40. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 216,092 shares of company stock valued at $35,644,136 in the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.