The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Acquires 38,548 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 1.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,622,528 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 38,548 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company's holdings in Alphabet were worth $689,885,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. LSV Asset Management bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Benchmark reissued a "negative" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $171.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $203.94.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.51, for a total value of $3,281,671.90. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,111 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,997,521.61. The trade was a 29.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 148,163 shares of company stock worth $25,361,647. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG traded down $1.17 on Wednesday, reaching $160.89. 20,452,435 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 19,202,988. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $163.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $177.23. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $208.70. The company has a market cap of $1.96 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 9.36%.

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.