Fire Capital Management LLC Invests $374,000 in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Fire Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 1,975 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $374,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in the fourth 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. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of 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 worth $18,672,198,000 after purchasing an additional 7,574,417 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in 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. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GOOGL. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $200.00 price target (down previously from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, DZ Bank cut shares of Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $198.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Ten 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock traded down $2.13 on Friday, hitting $169.73. The company's stock had a trading volume of 52,598,920 shares, compared to its average volume of 29,949,599. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week 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. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $159.10 and a 200-day moving average price of $174.56. The company has a market capitalization of $2.06 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $105,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,192,275. This represents a 8.09% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,837,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 261,966 shares in the company, valued at $45,844,050. This trade represents a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 164,533 shares of company stock valued at $26,772,774. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.