Centaurus Financial Inc. Grows Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Centaurus Financial Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 22.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 61,540 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 11,481 shares during the quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $10,206,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 43,005.6% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $31,086,250,000 after acquiring an additional 18,700,111 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings 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 worth $1,772,991,000 after purchasing an additional 9,135,056 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 116.4% in the third 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 during the period. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its position in Alphabet by 18,810.2% during 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 period. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in 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 during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.63, for a total value of $3,614,175.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,114,885 shares of the company's stock, valued at $339,713,977.55. The trade was a 1.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 2,835 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total transaction of $429,587.55. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,182 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,421,948.46. This trade represents a 8.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 163,624 shares of company stock worth $27,803,730 over the last three months. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock traded up $2.07 on Friday, hitting $174.71. 21,444,707 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 25,120,838. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $129.68 and a 12-month high of $191.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a market cap of $2.14 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.01. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $169.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $170.20.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for 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 last year, the firm posted $1.55 EPS. 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research upped their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $205.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, China Renaissance upgraded shares of Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $205.90.

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.