Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Bought by Banco Santander S.A.

Banco Santander S.A. increased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 15.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 751,249 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 103,259 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 1.3% of Banco Santander S.A.'s holdings, making the stock its 13th largest holding. Banco Santander S.A.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $116,173,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% during 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. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $18,672,198,000 after acquiring an additional 7,574,417 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after acquiring an additional 10,037,685 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.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. 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. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on Alphabet from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Tigress Financial increased their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. 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. Finally, 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. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $211.53.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of Alphabet 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 completion of the transaction, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. This trade represents a 1.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 273,219 shares of company stock worth $49,474,273. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.5%

GOOGL opened at $201.42 on Friday. 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 $180.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $172.98. The firm has a market cap of $2.44 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 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 Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.95%.

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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