Wexford Capital LP Acquires 6,991 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Wexford Capital LP lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 269.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 9,585 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 6,991 shares during the period. Wexford Capital LP's holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,814,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GOOGL. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after acquiring an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $18,672,198,000 after purchasing an additional 7,574,417 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised 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 worth $13,635,878,000 after purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after buying an additional 10,135,430 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL traded down $1.84 during trading on Friday, hitting $169.03. 17,941,146 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 29,593,922. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $158.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $174.89. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company has a market cap of $2.05 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. Research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total value of $5,066,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,652,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $413,555,306.40. The trade was a 1.21% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares of the company's stock, 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 112,054 shares of company stock valued at $17,722,605 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. DZ Bank lowered shares of Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $198.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $159.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Ten investment 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 company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $199.75.

Alphabet 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.