ProShare Advisors LLC Acquires 601,425 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

ProShare Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 22.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,250,211 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 601,425 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises approximately 1.4% of ProShare Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 9th largest holding. ProShare Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $618,970,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $43,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Rosenblatt Securities raised Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup reaffirmed a "sell" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Benchmark reiterated a "negative" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a "positive" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Three equities 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. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $203.94.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 2,824 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total transaction of $529,302.32. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,815,948.32. This trade represents a 15.82% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 179,324 shares of company stock valued at $30,153,353 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.6%

NASDAQ:GOOG traded down $1.06 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $166.37. 10,286,556 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,698,804. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $160.19 and a 200 day moving average price of $176.77. The company has a market cap of $2.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.70, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $142.66 and a one year high of $208.70. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. Alphabet's revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

About Alphabet

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.