Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC Grows Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 1,522.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 70,410 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 66,070 shares during the quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $13,409,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GOOG. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of several analyst reports. Benchmark reiterated a "negative" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Susquehanna reiterated a "positive" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday. Westpark Capital restated a "buy" rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 11th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $203.94.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.9 %

Alphabet stock traded up $3.02 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $165.81. The company had a trading volume of 16,826,135 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,189,008. The stock has a market cap of $2.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.60, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70. The business has a fifty day moving average of $162.25 and a 200 day moving average of $177.09.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. Alphabet's revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders 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 a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on 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 in the company, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 148,164 shares of company stock valued at $25,357,390. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.