Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Bought by Sit Investment Associates Inc.

Sit Investment Associates Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 3.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 286,181 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 10,218 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 1.0% of Sit Investment Associates Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Sit Investment Associates Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $44,255,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $4,317,606,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,483,898,000 after acquiring an additional 15,968,487 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after acquiring an additional 14,307,345 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after acquiring an additional 10,135,430 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 15.9% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 66,050,135 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $12,503,291,000 after acquiring an additional 9,042,271 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on GOOGL. KeyCorp increased their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. JMP Securities increased their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. BNP Paribas Exane reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $172.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $211.53.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.9%

GOOGL opened at $201.57 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $207.05. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $185.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $173.20. The firm has a market cap of $2.44 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The business had revenue of $96,428,000 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.95%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $3,448,820.16. Following the sale, the director directly owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total value of $5,801,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. The trade was a 1.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 242,319 shares of company stock worth $44,243,272 over the last ninety days. Company 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.

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