Cetera Investment Advisers Boosts Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 2.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,464,173 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 32,802 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 0.6% of Cetera Investment Advisers' holdings, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Cetera Investment Advisers' holdings in Alphabet were worth $277,168,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after acquiring an additional 22,100,902 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $18,672,198,000 after buying an additional 7,574,417 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $13,635,878,000 after buying an additional 10,037,685 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $13,178,470,000 after buying an additional 10,135,430 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 2,824 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total value of $529,302.32. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,815,948.32. The trade was a 15.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 146,824 shares of company stock valued at $25,086,603 in the last three months. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Susquehanna cut their target price on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Westpark Capital upgraded shares of Alphabet to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $159.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Mizuho cut their price target on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. 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 data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $199.46.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL traded down $11.86 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $151.38. The company's stock had a trading volume of 127,431,655 shares, compared to its average volume of 28,562,681. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.84 trillion, a P/E ratio of 18.80, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. 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 firm has a 50 day moving average price of $159.54 and a 200-day moving average price of $175.25. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.55%. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

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.