Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Stock Holdings Lifted by Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd.

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 54.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,154,607 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 408,272 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 0.7% of Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest holding. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $204,816,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $23,963,208,000 after purchasing an additional 135,064,454 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at about $2,622,943,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $64,299,725,000 after buying an additional 9,687,855 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,971,861,000 after acquiring an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $369,713,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on GOOG. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $340.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Alphabet from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Rosenblatt Securities set a $279.00 price target on Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Alphabet from $300.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.81.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 954 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.33, for a total value of $269,342.82. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 14,517 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,098,584.61. The trade was a 6.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.92, for a total transaction of $145,752.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,116 shares in the company, valued at $1,242,778.72. This represents a 10.50% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders sold 222,396 shares of company stock valued at $54,105,275. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG opened at $279.70 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $251.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $205.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $291.93. The stock has a market cap of $3.38 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.58, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.12 EPS. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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 given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.