Covington Investment Advisors Inc. Invests $552,000 in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Covington Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 3,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $552,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Quantbot Technologies LP raised its holdings in Alphabet by 124.5% in the 3rd quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 126,974 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $21,059,000 after acquiring an additional 70,409 shares during the last quarter. Isomer Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $8,292,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.1% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 15,963,072 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,647,432,000 after purchasing an additional 775,363 shares during the last quarter. Capital Square LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 17.5% during the third quarter. Capital Square LLC now owns 3,834 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $636,000 after buying an additional 572 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Acorn Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 9.9% during the third quarter. Acorn Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,315 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $716,000 after buying an additional 390 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Truist Financial raised their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Loop Capital boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven 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, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.90.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.63, for a total transaction of $3,614,175.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,114,885 shares in the company, valued at $339,713,977.55. This represents a 1.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total value of $75,437.46. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 160,789 shares of company stock valued at $27,374,143. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $175.37 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $169.70 and its two-hundred day moving average is $170.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.15 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $129.68 and a 52 week high of $191.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.55 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Alphabet Company 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.