AlphaQ Advisors LLC Has $1.75 Million Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

AlphaQ Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 38.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 9,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,580 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 4.8% of AlphaQ Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. AlphaQ Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,753,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Alphabet by 8.3% in the 4th 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 last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in Alphabet by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,635,878,000 after buying an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Alphabet by 17.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,178,470,000 after acquiring an additional 10,135,430 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on GOOGL. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 target price (down from $230.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Citigroup upped their price target on Alphabet from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $159.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $163.98 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $158.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $174.93. The company has a market capitalization of $1.99 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results 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 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 analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total transaction of $5,066,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,652,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $413,555,306.40. This trade represents a 1.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,374 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total value of $238,347.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,606,213.28. This represents a 8.38% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 129,744 shares of company stock worth $20,968,366 in the last quarter. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.