Sage Rhino Capital LLC lifted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 8.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,221 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 1,428 shares during the quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,003,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of GOOG. Norges Bank bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $5,166,070,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 18,562.3% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,237,733,000 after buying an additional 14,246,573 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $1,551,533,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $10,873,751,000 after buying an additional 7,917,625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GQG Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 181,679.1% during the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 7,225,721 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,376,066,000 after buying an additional 7,221,746 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of equities analysts have issued reports on GOOG shares. Tigress Financial restated a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and set a $220.00 target price (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Citizens Jmp upgraded Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Alphabet from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a "sell" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and six have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $207.13.
View Our Latest Research Report on Alphabet
Alphabet Stock Up 1.5%
Alphabet stock traded up $2.61 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $181.31. The stock had a trading volume of 23,949,486 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,422,256. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $171.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $175.18. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $208.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.20 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. Alphabet's revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Alphabet Increases Dividend
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Alphabet's payout ratio is 9.36%.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.87, for a total transaction of $5,553,275.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,620,196 shares of the company's stock, valued at $447,712,890.52. The trade was a 1.23% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 6,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,192,275. This trade represents a 8.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 215,643 shares of company stock valued at $36,330,928 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Alphabet 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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