Two Sigma Advisers LP Raises Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 58.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,177,400 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,537,300 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up 1.6% of Two Sigma Advisers LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Two Sigma Advisers LP’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $692,822,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 43,005.6% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,086,250,000 after purchasing an additional 18,700,111 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 587.4% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 10,690,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,772,991,000 after buying an additional 9,135,056 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 116.4% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,670,225 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,437,957,000 after buying an additional 4,662,809 shares in the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. grew 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 buying an additional 4,410,811 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 143.7% during 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on GOOGL. Roth Mkm raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $206.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. KeyCorp upped their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. China Renaissance raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $206.08.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $189.82 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.32 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $171.63 and a two-hundred day moving average of $170.67. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $129.68 and a 12 month high of $195.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.55 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,802 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.47, for a total transaction of $2,780,226.94. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 43,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,280,514.53. The trade was a 27.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.22, for a total transaction of $291,330.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 23,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,529,987.28. The trade was a 6.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 198,623 shares of company stock worth $34,413,006. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Company 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.