Criteria Caixa S.A.U. Invests $111.99 Million in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Criteria Caixa S.A.U. acquired a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 591,621 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $111,994,000. Alphabet comprises approximately 16.0% of Criteria Caixa S.A.U.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its largest holding.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. grew its position in Alphabet by 518.8% during the 4th quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $39,000. PayPay Securities Corp raised its position in Alphabet by 36.1% in the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $53,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $178.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday. Citizens Jmp cut Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. DZ Bank lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Westpark Capital raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $198.63.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.16, for a total value of $5,075,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,685,196 shares in the company, valued at approximately $419,320,207.36. This trade represents a 1.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 148,163 shares of company stock valued at $25,361,647. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $161.96 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.97 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $162.18 and a 200 day moving average of $175.52. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.52%. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

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.