Woodline Partners LP Buys 284,591 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Woodline Partners LP increased its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 23,308.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 285,812 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 284,591 shares during the quarter. Woodline Partners LP's holdings in Alphabet were worth $54,430,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $43,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total value of $3,245,761.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,449,286 shares of the company's stock, valued at $265,914,995.28. This trade represents a 1.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,374 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total transaction of $238,347.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,606,213.28. The trade was a 8.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 129,744 shares of company stock valued at $20,968,366 in the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $167.87 on Tuesday. 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 Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70. The firm's 50-day moving average is $160.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.74. The stock has a market cap of $2.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.85, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.89 EPS. The company's revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business 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 $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Citigroup reissued a "sell" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Westpark Capital reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Benchmark reissued a "negative" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $203.94.

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.

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