Financial Insights Inc. lessened its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 74.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,065 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 8,712 shares during the quarter. Financial Insights Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $580,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 7.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $10,559,240,000 after buying an additional 4,567,275 shares during the period. Wealth Group Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 1,582 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $299,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Capital & Planning LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 34.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital & Planning LLC now owns 4,383 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $830,000 after acquiring an additional 1,119 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management UK Ltd. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 95.0% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management UK Ltd. now owns 39,000 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $7,383,000 after acquiring an additional 19,000 shares during the period. Finally, Capstone Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $277,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler increased their price objective 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. Westpark Capital reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. UBS Group set a $195.00 price objective on Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on Alphabet from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $199.75.
Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Alphabet
Insider Buying and Selling
In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,374 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total transaction of $238,347.78. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at $2,606,213.28. This trade represents a 8.38% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 164,654 shares of company stock valued at $26,793,380. Insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.
Alphabet Stock Performance
GOOGL stock traded down $0.54 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $172.36. 34,466,802 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 29,837,596. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $207.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.09 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $158.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $174.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.
Alphabet Increases Dividend
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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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