Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC Raises Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.4% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 170,634 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,141 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 2.5% of Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $30,071,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter valued at about $31,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 36.4% in the second quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 37.9% in the second quarter. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 324 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $57,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 77.6% during the 2nd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 348 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 152 shares during the period. Finally, S&T Bank PA increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 40.2% during the 2nd quarter. S&T Bank PA now owns 345 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $300.00 target price (up from $265.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, October 27th. HSBC upped their price target on Alphabet from $335.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $224.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $260.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have issued a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $312.65.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $320.21 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $280.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $227.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $328.83. The company has a market cap of $3.86 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.58, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.41, for a total value of $7,910,825.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,402,119 shares in the company, valued at $584,699,785.79. This represents a 1.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total value of $680,610.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,293 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,236,785. The trade was a 13.84% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 226,128 shares of company stock worth $61,326,372 over the last ninety days. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.