Fmr LLC Boosts Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

FMR LLC lifted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 9.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 22,100,902 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 2.8% of FMR LLC's holdings, making the stock its 6th largest position. FMR LLC owned 2.03% of Alphabet worth $47,025,322,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Bennett Selby Investments LP boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Bennett Selby Investments LP now owns 1,354 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $256,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 1,293 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $245,000 after buying an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,845 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,864,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the period. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 2,381 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $457,000 after buying an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Addison Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 7,527 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,425,000 after buying an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. DA Davidson dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. KeyCorp reduced their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Wolfe Research raised their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $203.51.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL traded down $1.05 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $155.26. 6,539,842 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 28,141,172. 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 one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $207.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.89 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.29, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $167.17 and a two-hundred day moving average of $176.14.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total transaction of $32,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,613 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,232,544.70. The trade was a 2.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,340 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 115,663 shares of company stock worth $20,286,447. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

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.