IFM Investors Pty Ltd Has $153.52 Million Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Key Points

• IFM Investors Pty Ltd reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. by 0.8%, selling 7,659 shares to hold a total of 982,650 shares, which is valued at approximately $153.5 million.
• Several large investors have increased their holdings in Alphabet, including Nuveen LLC with a stake worth nearly $2.6 billion and Vanguard Group Inc. growing its holdings to $64.3 billion.
• Alphabet announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, with a payout ratio of 8.95%, and the dividend will be paid on September 15th.

IFM Investors Pty Ltd lowered its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 0.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 982,650 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 7,659 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 1.7% of IFM Investors Pty Ltd's holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest position. IFM Investors Pty Ltd's holdings in Alphabet were worth $153,519,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JDM Financial Group LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 10.6% in the 4th quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 593 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $113,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. NCM Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. NCM Capital Management LLC now owns 2,802 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $438,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Faithward Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Faithward Advisors LLC now owns 2,505 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $391,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Objectivity Squared LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Objectivity Squared LLC now owns 16,342 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,605,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tranquility Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Tranquility Partners LLC now owns 14,488 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,263,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOG has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Phillip Securities lowered Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "moderate buy" rating in a research report on Monday, September 8th. KeyCorp set a $265.00 price target on Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Citizens Jmp raised Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Lake Street Capital reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $227.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $2,786,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 240,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at $44,656,704. This represents a 5.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $229.73, for a total value of $7,466,225.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,429,892 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $558,219,089.16. This trade represents a 1.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 254,710 shares of company stock valued at $49,208,380. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.2%

GOOG stock traded up $0.60 during trading on Friday, reaching $241.38. 14,519,054 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 22,624,780. The firm's 50 day moving average is $202.67 and its 200 day moving average is $178.83. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $242.57. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a market cap of $2.92 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The business had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 8.95%.

Alphabet Company 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.