Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Bought by Investment Management Corp of Ontario

Investment Management Corp of Ontario increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 22.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 348,050 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 63,720 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 2.2% of Investment Management Corp of Ontario's investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position. Investment Management Corp of Ontario's holdings in Alphabet were worth $66,283,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 7,813 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. This trade represents a 2.50% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 179,324 shares of company stock worth $30,153,353 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG traded up $0.93 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $160.51. The company's stock had a trading volume of 8,333,688 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,523,707. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $208.70. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $160.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.97. The firm has a market cap of $1.95 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $171.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $203.94.

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.