19,878 Shares in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Acquired by Entropy Technologies LP

Key Points

• Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new stake in Alphabet Inc., purchasing 19,878 shares valued at approximately $3,074,000, as disclosed in a recent 13F filing with the SEC.
• CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock for a total of $5,801,900, resulting in a 1.25% decrease in his ownership of the company's stock.
• Multiple analysts have raised their price targets for Alphabet Inc., with some predicting a target price up to $240.00, reflecting a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" among investment analysts.

Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 19,878 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $3,074,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Rovida Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 22.4% in the 1st quarter. Rovida Advisors Inc. now owns 130,000 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $20,090,000 after buying an additional 23,750 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 43,648,514 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $6,749,806,000 after buying an additional 593,345 shares during the period. Athena Investment Management increased its stake in Alphabet by 3.6% in the 1st quarter. Athena Investment Management now owns 4,914 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $760,000 after buying an additional 169 shares during the period. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth about $23,196,000. Finally, Robinson Smith Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 18.4% in the 1st quarter. Robinson Smith Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,546 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $703,000 after buying an additional 708 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 15,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $2,786,400.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 240,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,656,704. This trade represents a 5.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $203.79, for a total transaction of $122,274.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 6,316 shares in the company, valued at $1,287,137.64. This represents a 8.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 242,319 shares of company stock valued at $44,243,272 over the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $217.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Loop Capital reaffirmed a "hold" rating and issued a $190.00 price target (up previously from $165.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $184.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $211.53.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.1%

NASDAQ GOOGL traded down $2.25 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $199.32. 28,901,311 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 35,460,480. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $207.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.41 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $185.70 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $173.38.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The business had revenue of $96,428,000 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $93.60 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal 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 issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis 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%.

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.