Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is Unisphere Establishment’s 10th Largest Position

Unisphere Establishment grew its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 6.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,171,000 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 129,200 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 3.6% of Unisphere Establishment’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position. Unisphere Establishment’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $410,970,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOGL. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,025,322,000 after acquiring an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Alphabet by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $18,672,198,000 after buying an additional 7,574,417 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in Alphabet by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after buying an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Alphabet by 17.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after buying an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. 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 Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 148,163 shares of company stock valued at $25,361,647 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on GOOGL. Wedbush set a $190.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. UBS Group set a $195.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday. Bank of America increased their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 target price (down previously from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $198.89.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $160.16 on Wednesday. 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 stock has a fifty day moving average price of $161.20 and a 200 day moving average price of $175.49. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The company has a market cap of $1.95 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 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 paid a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 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.