Prudential PLC Increases Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Key Points

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Prudential PLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 10.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 294,528 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 28,159 shares during the quarter. Prudential PLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $45,546,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 242.9% during the first quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 168 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. IMA Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter worth about $28,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $28,000. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 85.7% during the 1st quarter. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC now owns 195 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on GOOGL shares. Barclays raised their price target on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. BNP Paribas Exane restated a "neutral" rating and set a $172.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, June 27th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $218.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Guggenheim raised their price target on Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on Alphabet from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $211.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $199.92, for a total transaction of $6,497,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,462,392 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $492,281,408.64. This trade represents a 1.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.79, for a total value of $122,274.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 6,316 shares in the company, valued at $1,287,137.64. The trade was a 8.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 254,719 shares of company stock valued at $47,223,172 over the last quarter. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.0%

Shares of GOOGL stock traded up $4.0660 on Friday, reaching $203.8160. 9,098,098 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 36,130,219. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $207.05. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $2.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $186.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $173.37.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The firm had revenue of $96,428,000 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm 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 dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.