Victrix Investment Advisors Buys Shares of 44,031 Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Victrix Investment Advisors bought a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 44,031 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $8,335,000. Alphabet makes up approximately 6.0% of Victrix Investment Advisors’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest position.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. grew its stake 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 buying an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $39,000. PayPay Securities Corp grew its stake in Alphabet by 36.1% during the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Anderson Financial Strategies LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $49,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.4%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $166.19 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $158.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $175.04. The company has a market cap of $2.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company 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 $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 yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. KeyCorp increased their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Rosenblatt Securities decreased their price target on Alphabet from $205.00 to $189.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Alphabet from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 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 represents a 1.18% 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 three months. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

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.