Paragon Advisors LLC decreased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 13.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,689 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 4,070 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 1.5% of Paragon Advisors LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest holding. Paragon Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,972,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $18,672,198,000 after purchasing an additional 7,574,417 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after buying an additional 10,037,685 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% during 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 buying an additional 10,135,430 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.
Insider Activity at Alphabet
In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.71, for a total value of $5,483,075.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,587,696 shares in the company, valued at $436,570,192.16. The trade was a 1.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at $2,377,014.99. This trade represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 195,770 shares of company stock valued at $32,036,638 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. 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. Roth Mkm reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and four have issued 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.
Get Our Latest Report on GOOGL
Alphabet Price Performance
Shares of Alphabet stock traded down $1.25 on Wednesday, hitting $177.35. The company had a trading volume of 31,595,442 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,356,375. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $207.05. The company has a market cap of $2.15 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.03, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $161.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $174.49. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS 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 issued a $0.21 dividend. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 9.36%.
Alphabet Company Profile
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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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