GCQ FUNDS MANAGEMENT PTY Ltd lifted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 85.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 488,222 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 225,543 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 18.5% of GCQ FUNDS MANAGEMENT PTY Ltd's holdings, making the stock its largest holding. GCQ FUNDS MANAGEMENT PTY Ltd's holdings in Alphabet were worth $75,499,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Addison Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 7,527 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,425,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Burt Wealth Advisors lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Burt Wealth Advisors now owns 5,307 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,005,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Perritt Capital Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 10.4% during the fourth quarter. Perritt Capital Management Inc now owns 618 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $117,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Nia Impact Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Nia Impact Advisors LLC now owns 17,161 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $3,249,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the period. Finally, Hanlon Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Hanlon Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,553 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $673,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet
In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total transaction of $5,801,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at $456,991,919.84. The trade was a 1.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $105,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 6,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,192,275. The trade was a 8.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 215,643 shares of company stock worth $36,330,928 over the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.
Alphabet Price Performance
Shares of Alphabet stock traded up $1.17 on Thursday, reaching $177.79. The stock had a trading volume of 18,695,312 shares, compared to its average volume of 31,743,018. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The company has a market cap of $2.16 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The business's 50 day moving average is $169.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $173.69.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, 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 was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 9.36%.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Several equities analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and issued a $178.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $175.00 to $177.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Wedbush set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $200.13.
View Our Latest Report on GOOGL
About Alphabet
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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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