Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Purchased by S.A. Mason LLC

S.A. Mason LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 10,238 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 170 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.0% of S.A. Mason LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 17th largest holding. S.A. Mason LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,938,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 43,005.6% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,086,250,000 after acquiring an additional 18,700,111 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 116.4% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,670,225 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,437,957,000 after purchasing an additional 4,662,809 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Alphabet by 7.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,559,240,000 after buying an additional 4,567,275 shares during the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $513,024,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,154,651,000 after buying an additional 2,626,431 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $185.32 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.27 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.95. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $191.90 and its two-hundred day moving average is $174.76. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $130.66 and a 12 month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. Analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total value of $284,700.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,142,195.20. This represents a 6.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 89,529 shares of company stock worth $16,600,078 in the last ninety days. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GOOGL. DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Pivotal Research boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $210.62.

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.