Associated Banc Corp Buys New Shares in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Associated Banc Corp initiated a major Alphabet position, buying 629,362 shares worth about $216.6 million in the third quarter. Alphabet now represents 5.1% of the bank’s portfolio and is its third-largest holding.
• Alphabet reported quarterly EPS of $2.12, below the $3.02 analyst consensus, while revenue of $127.58 billion also slightly missed expectations.
• Analysts maintain a consensus Buy rating with an average price target of $412.51; the company also announced a quarterly dividend of $0.22 per share.

Associated Banc Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 629,362 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $216,551,000. Alphabet accounts for about 5.1% of Associated Banc Corp's holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest holding.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Guardian Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter valued at $278,000. TTP Investments Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,435,000. Watershed Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 300.6% in the 3rd quarter. Watershed Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,284 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,818,000 after acquiring an additional 3,965 shares in the last quarter. Integrity Advisory Solutions LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 11.8% in the 3rd quarter. Integrity Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 8,126 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,796,000 after acquiring an additional 860 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Reston Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,178 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,782,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

These are some of the GOOGL headlines that stood out recently:

• Positive Sentiment: Google launched Gemini for healthcare, extending Alphabet’s AI offerings into a specialized market. The news adds to the company’s efforts to turn AI development into commercial opportunities. Article: Alphabet Launches Gemini For Healthcare
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet is reportedly planning its first bond sale in Hong Kong and Singapore, potentially raising about $3 billion. The sale could broaden funding sources for the company’s investments, while adding to investor focus on financing costs and AI spending. Article: Alphabet eyes $3 billion Hong Kong, Singapore bond sale
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet is among Anthropic’s major investors and cloud providers, with the company’s IPO potentially increasing the value of its stake and supporting Google Cloud demand. However, the reported additional investment is also a substantial capital commitment. Article: Anthropic's Trillion-Dollar IPO Could Give Cloud Giants a Double Win

Alphabet Stock Up 2.1%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $293.45 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $270.70 and a 1-year high of $408.61. The company has a market cap of $3.61 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 2.79 and a quick ratio of 2.69. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $329.89 and its 200 day moving average price is $338.38.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 28th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.02 by ($0.90). Alphabet had a net margin of 50.03% and a return on equity of 43.33%. The company had revenue of $127.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $127.96 billion. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 19.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 7th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 7th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 4.59%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GOOGL. Evercore reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $450.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, September 16th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. Zacks Research cut Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Citizens Jmp downgraded Alphabet from a "market outperform" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, October 29th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $405.00 target price (down from $425.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $412.51.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 83 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.45, for a total transaction of $28,257.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 19,076 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,494,424.20. This trade represents a 0.43% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 247 shares of company stock valued at $79,238. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc. is a technology holding company whose largest business is Google. Founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google became part of Alphabet when the company reorganized its businesses under the holding-company structure in 2015. Google's products and services include Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play and Google Cloud. The company also generates revenue from digital advertising and offers devices, subscriptions and artificial intelligence products and services.

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