Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 12.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 195,965 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 20,993 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 1.6% of Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $30,304,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC grew its stake in 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Alphabet by 8.3% in 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 in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its position 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 worth $13,635,878,000 after acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 17.0% in 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 period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several research firms have recently issued reports on GOOGL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Westpark Capital restated a "buy" rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Truist Financial cut their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Roth Mkm reissued a "buy" rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $199.75.
Read Our Latest Report on GOOGL
Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet
In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,293,285.89. This trade represents a 2.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,377,014.99. The trade was a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 163,270 shares of company stock worth $26,553,563. Insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.
Alphabet Stock Performance
Shares of GOOGL traded down $2.85 on Tuesday, reaching $166.18. 44,925,348 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 30,043,858. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $159.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $174.53. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $207.05. The stock has a market cap of $2.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.64, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.
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, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Alphabet Increases Dividend
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.51%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.
About Alphabet
(
Free Report)
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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