Zions Bancorporation N.A. Grows Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Zions Bancorporation N.A. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 27.1% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 36,999 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,882 shares during the quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $6,136,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 43,005.6% in the third 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 in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 587.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 9,135,056 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in Alphabet by 14.4% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,724,251,000 after acquiring an additional 7,275,757 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in 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 worth $1,437,957,000 after acquiring an additional 4,662,809 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its position in Alphabet by 18,810.2% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 4,434,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $807,700,000 after acquiring an additional 4,410,811 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on GOOGL. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $217.00 price objective (up previously from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Alphabet from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $210.00 price target (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.90.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $169.23 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.07 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $127.90 and a 1-year high of $191.75. 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 business’s 50-day simple moving average is $168.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $170.34.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total transaction of $109,420.08. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 32,017 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,136,807.48. This trade represents a 2.09 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.68, for a total value of $3,570,300.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,137,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $339,160,251.80. The trade was a 1.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 206,795 shares of company stock worth $34,673,866. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.