Criteria Caixa S.A.U. Buys New Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Criteria Caixa S.A.U. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 591,621 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $111,994,000. Alphabet makes up 16.0% of Criteria Caixa S.A.U.'s holdings, making the stock its biggest position.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Mendel Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 62.9% in the 4th quarter. Mendel Capital Management LLC now owns 3,930 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $744,000 after purchasing an additional 1,518 shares in the last quarter. Whalerock Point Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Whalerock Point Partners LLC now owns 115,728 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $21,907,000 after purchasing an additional 1,479 shares in the last quarter. Betterment LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 7.1% in the 4th quarter. Betterment LLC now owns 1,918 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $363,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares in the last quarter. Shorepoint Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Shorepoint Capital Partners LLC now owns 32,397 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $6,133,000 after purchasing an additional 586 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mission Creek Capital Partners Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Mission Creek Capital Partners Inc. now owns 19,966 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $3,780,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,340 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.16, for a total value of $5,075,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,685,196 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $419,320,207.36. This represents a 1.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 148,053 shares of company stock valued at $25,339,647. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on GOOGL. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Wolfe Research lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $199.46.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL traded up $2.87 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $161.67. 15,018,109 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 28,176,946. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.97 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The business's 50-day moving average price is $160.78 and its 200 day moving average price is $175.37.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

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.