Prescott Group Capital Management L.L.C. Increases Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Prescott Group Capital Management L.L.C. increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 48.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,541 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 833 shares during the period. Prescott Group Capital Management L.L.C.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $448,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 13.9% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 6,227,020 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,097,351,000 after purchasing an additional 757,549 shares during the period. Mirabaud Asset Management Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% during the 2nd quarter. Mirabaud Asset Management Ltd now owns 49,419 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,823,000 after buying an additional 6,853 shares in the last quarter. CSM Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 553.6% in the 2nd quarter. CSM Advisors LLC now owns 275,042 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $48,475,000 after buying an additional 232,960 shares during the period. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 14.6% in the 2nd quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 48,678 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,578,000 after acquiring an additional 6,191 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rathbones Group PLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 4,746,627 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $836,498,000 after acquiring an additional 153,945 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $296.64, for a total value of $9,640,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,304,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $683,642,180.16. The trade was a 1.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $288.26, for a total value of $800,786.28. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 11,739 shares in the company, valued at $3,383,884.14. The trade was a 19.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 225,174 shares of company stock worth $58,095,223. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Moffett Nathanson upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $295.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. CICC Research boosted their price target on Alphabet from $240.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $315.00 price target (up previously from $250.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. HSBC lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $295.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on Alphabet from $280.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $305.33.

Alphabet Trading Up 3.5%

Alphabet stock opened at $299.66 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $306.42. The business’s fifty day moving average is $262.39 and its 200 day moving average is $213.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.62 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued 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. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

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.