Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is Alyeska Investment Group L.P.'s 9th Largest Position

Alyeska Investment Group L.P. grew its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 21.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,696,790 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 297,498 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 1.2% of Alyeska Investment Group L.P.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Alyeska Investment Group L.P.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $321,202,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 518.8% during the fourth quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $39,000. PayPay Securities Corp increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 36.1% in the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the period. Finally, Anderson Financial Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $49,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on GOOGL. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. DZ Bank downgraded Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $198.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $199.46.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of GOOGL stock traded up $0.18 on Monday, reaching $164.21. 21,320,782 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 28,166,316. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market cap of $1.99 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $160.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $175.50. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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 net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.51%. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total transaction of $5,374,012.74. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 272,466 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $50,376,238.74. The trade was a 9.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 2,824 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total value of $529,302.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,815,948.32. This represents a 15.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 146,824 shares of company stock worth $25,086,603. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.