TCW Group Inc. Raises Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

TCW Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 420,437 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 504 shares during the period. TCW Group Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $69,729,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc boosted its position in Alphabet by 75.0% during the 2nd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 140 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. LMR Partners LLP bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth $32,000. Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth $36,000. Denver PWM LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Quarry LP purchased a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at about $53,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $217.00 price target (up from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $210.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JMP Securities upped their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Alphabet from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $206.69.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $188.40 on Thursday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $2.31 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.99, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.01. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $173.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $171.09. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $130.66 and a 12 month high of $201.42.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total transaction of $559,856.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,085,531.55. This represents a 12.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,802 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.47, for a total value of $2,780,226.94. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 43,999 shares in the company, valued at $7,280,514.53. This trade represents a 27.63 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 178,957 shares of company stock valued at $31,358,687. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.