Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 9,000 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,704,000.
Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Optivise Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,035,000 after purchasing an additional 403 shares during the last quarter. Community Bank N.A. raised its position in Alphabet by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 46,173 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $8,741,000 after acquiring an additional 2,790 shares during the period. Premier Fund Managers Ltd raised its position in Alphabet by 30.0% in the fourth quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 61,792 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $11,816,000 after acquiring an additional 14,262 shares during the period. Absolute Capital Management LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 14.0% in the fourth quarter. Absolute Capital Management LLC now owns 2,096 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $401,000 after acquiring an additional 258 shares during the period. Finally, Permanent Capital Management LP bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $273,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Several analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Roth Mkm reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Susquehanna reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Ten equities research 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.com, Alphabet has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $199.75.
Get Our Latest Research Report on GOOGL
Insider Buying and Selling
In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total value of $5,066,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,652,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $413,555,306.40. The trade was a 1.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 2,824 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total transaction of $529,302.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at $2,815,948.32. The trade was a 15.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 179,324 shares of company stock worth $30,153,353 over the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.
Alphabet Stock Up 1.4%
Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $2.23 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $166.19. The company's stock had a trading volume of 42,579,974 shares, compared to its average volume of 29,058,686. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $158.17 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $175.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.
Alphabet Increases Dividend
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 9.36%.
Alphabet Profile
(
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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