Night Squared LP Acquires Shares of 9,191 Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

• Night Squared LP has acquired 9,191 shares of Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL), valued at approximately $1.42 million, reflecting positive sentiment towards the company's stock.
• Multiple analysts have recently upgraded their price targets for GOOGL, with price estimates ranging from $191.00 to $220.00, indicating an overall bullish outlook on the stock.
• Alphabet has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, set to be paid on September 15th, representing a 0.4% dividend yield.

Night Squared LP purchased a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 9,191 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,421,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after acquiring an additional 14,307,345 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 43,648,514 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $6,749,806,000 after acquiring an additional 593,345 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 39,792,300 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $6,153,481,000 after acquiring an additional 727,335 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 38,556,577 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $5,962,389,000 after acquiring an additional 104,859 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at $4,317,606,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Alphabet from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $220.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, June 27th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $192.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $235.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have issued a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $221.31.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of GOOGL stock traded down $1.80 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $228.86. 24,818,956 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 36,593,098. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $231.31. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $193.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $174.80. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.77 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.38, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.01.

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 (EPS) 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 $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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 dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 8.95%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total value of $4,637,754.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 42,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,371,905.30. This represents a 35.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.92, for a total transaction of $6,497,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,462,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $492,281,408.64. This represents a 1.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 222,210 shares of company stock worth $41,742,155 over the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.