Fullerton Fund Management Co Ltd. Buys 15,773 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Fullerton Fund Management Co Ltd. boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 14.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 128,317 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 15,773 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 0.8% of Fullerton Fund Management Co Ltd.'s holdings, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Fullerton Fund Management Co Ltd.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $24,290,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Elefante Mark B acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $5,491,000. Ethic Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 14.8% in the fourth quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 592,326 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $112,127,000 after buying an additional 76,452 shares in the last quarter. Eschler Asset Management LLP boosted its stake in Alphabet by 8.6% in the fourth quarter. Eschler Asset Management LLP now owns 19,159 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $3,646,000 after buying an additional 1,519 shares in the last quarter. Fiduciary Trust Co boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Fiduciary Trust Co now owns 751,833 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $142,322,000 after buying an additional 8,387 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Manhattan CO. LLC. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. First Manhattan CO. LLC. now owns 1,948,857 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $370,434,000 after purchasing an additional 8,515 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GOOGL. DZ Bank lowered Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $198.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Susquehanna cut their price target on Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Rosenblatt Securities lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $205.00 to $189.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 25th. JMP Securities restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Roth Mkm reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Trading Up 3.7%

GOOGL stock traded up $5.71 during trading on Monday, hitting $158.46. 44,064,211 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 28,840,054. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.92 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The company has a 50-day moving average of $158.93 and a 200-day moving average of $175.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

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, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. Analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be 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 is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total transaction of $5,066,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,652,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $413,555,306.40. This trade represents a 1.21% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 2,824 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total value of $529,302.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,815,948.32. The trade was a 15.82% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 179,324 shares of company stock valued at $30,153,353 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

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.