Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. decreased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 65.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 15,757 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 29,966 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises approximately 1.4% of Symphony Financial Ltd. Co.'s holdings, making the stock its 17th largest position. Symphony Financial Ltd. Co.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,360,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $47,025,322,000 after acquiring an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,483,898,000 after acquiring an additional 15,968,487 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in 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 acquiring an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $13,635,878,000 after acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.68, for a total transaction of $5,742,100.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,555,196 shares in the company, valued at $451,452,029.28. This represents a 1.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares in the company, valued at $2,377,014.99. The trade was a 4.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 216,195 shares of company stock worth $35,764,898. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GOOGL. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "neutral" rating and set a $189.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Citizens Jmp raised Alphabet from a "market perform" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and set a $220.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $171.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $199.95.
Read Our Latest Stock Report on Alphabet
Alphabet Stock Up 2.9%
Alphabet stock traded up $4.99 during trading on Friday, reaching $178.53. 107,974,317 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 31,238,454. The company's 50-day moving average is $166.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $174.52. 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 Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $207.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.17 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.90, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.01.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released 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 return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.
Alphabet Increases Dividend
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This is a boost 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 0.47%. Alphabet's payout ratio is 9.36%.
About Alphabet
(
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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