SouthState Corp Purchases 1,427 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

SouthState Corp lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.1% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 131,361 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,427 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up 1.5% of SouthState Corp’s holdings, making the stock its 17th largest holding. SouthState Corp’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $21,962,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,355,724,000 after buying an additional 7,470,042 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 45,731,826 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,963,128,000 after purchasing an additional 979,083 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 35,558,778 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,414,179,000 after purchasing an additional 684,968 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,657,421 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,688,743,000 after purchasing an additional 636,008 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 12,327,458 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,261,103,000 after purchasing an additional 282,121 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on GOOG. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. DA Davidson upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Scotiabank assumed coverage on Alphabet in a research note on Friday, October 11th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price target for the company. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.41, for a total value of $1,862,805.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 319,966 shares in the company, valued at $56,765,168.06. The trade was a 3.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.66, for a total value of $3,772,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,159,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $362,126,319.10. This trade represents a 1.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 206,795 shares of company stock worth $34,471,141 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.7 %

Alphabet stock opened at $176.80 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $129.40 and a 52 week high of $193.31. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $167.56 and its 200 day moving average price is $171.80. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 earnings per share 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 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

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.