Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Purchased by Rhumbline Advisers

Rhumbline Advisers lifted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 0.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,267,743 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 86,670 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 1.6% of Rhumbline Advisers' portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest position. Rhumbline Advisers owned about 0.09% of Alphabet worth $1,742,444,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,483,898,000 after purchasing an additional 15,968,487 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position 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 worth $13,178,470,000 after purchasing an additional 10,135,430 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in Alphabet by 16.2% in 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 purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on GOOGL. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Westpark Capital reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of Alphabet stock traded down $1.65 during trading on Thursday, hitting $175.70. The stock had a trading volume of 20,879,613 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,364,105. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $161.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $174.51. The company has a market capitalization of $2.13 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. 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 0.48%. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total value of $1,962,705.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 49,037 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,181,333.08. This represents a 19.35% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.71, for a total transaction of $5,483,075.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,587,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $436,570,192.16. This represents a 1.24% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 195,570 shares of company stock valued at $32,003,532 over the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.