Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI's 5th Largest Position

Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 5.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,841,578 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 152,420 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 4.4% of Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI's portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI's holdings in Alphabet were worth $537,911,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $18,672,198,000 after acquiring an additional 7,574,417 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position 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 valued at $13,635,878,000 after acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Alphabet by 17.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after acquiring an additional 10,135,430 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Westpark Capital reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. DZ Bank downgraded shares of Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $198.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $199.75.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.4%

GOOGL traded up $2.31 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $170.87. The company's stock had a trading volume of 74,740,455 shares, compared to its average volume of 29,591,327. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The stock's 50-day moving average is $158.29 and its 200-day moving average is $174.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.07 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.23, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total transaction of $3,245,761.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 1,449,286 shares in the company, valued at $265,914,995.28. This represents a 1.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 129,744 shares of company stock worth $20,968,366 over the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.