Essential Planning LLC. Has $600,000 Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Essential Planning LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,617 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the quarter. Essential Planning LLC.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $600,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 70.6% during the 1st quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 101,230 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,279,000 after purchasing an additional 41,880 shares in the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 3.6% in the first quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 31,171 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,705,000 after purchasing an additional 1,072 shares in the last quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 420,126 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $63,410,000 after buying an additional 7,677 shares in the last quarter. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 18.2% during the 1st quarter. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 28,633 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,322,000 after buying an additional 4,405 shares during the period. Finally, Beacon Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.9% during the first quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 11,215 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,693,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.78, for a total value of $1,898,190.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 330,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $59,741,643.48. This represents a 3.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total value of $429,587.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,421,948.46. The trade was a 8.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 206,795 shares of company stock worth $34,673,866. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on GOOGL. China Renaissance raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $190.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JMP Securities increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.90.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $168.95 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The company has a market cap of $2.07 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.03. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $168.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $170.31. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $127.90 and a 1-year high of $191.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.55 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

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.