Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Acquired by Somerset Trust Co

Somerset Trust Co lifted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 33.8% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 11,328 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,863 shares during the quarter. Somerset Trust Co’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,754,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $91,033,300,000 after purchasing an additional 6,733,278 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $40,524,841,000 after buying an additional 4,008,374 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $24,857,017,000 after buying an additional 4,224,497 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $21,944,208,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Alphabet by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 44,151,820 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,780,875,000 after buying an additional 503,306 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $313.51 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $295.59 and a 200 day moving average price of $238.75. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The company has a market capitalization of $3.78 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.07. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $328.83.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. Research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GOOGL. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $290.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Bank of America increased their price target on Alphabet from $280.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $365.00 price objective (up previously from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Moffett Nathanson upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $224.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $315.90.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $299.80, for a total value of $9,743,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,239,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $671,437,776.20. The trade was a 1.43% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total value of $867,569.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 8,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,798,832.60. This trade represents a 23.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 226,128 shares of company stock valued at $63,183,331 in the last ninety days. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.