E Fund Management Co. Ltd. Has $18.57 Million Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

E Fund Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 53.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 98,078 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 34,176 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 0.9% of E Fund Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 20th largest position. E Fund Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $18,566,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,186 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $363,000 after acquiring an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its position in Alphabet by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 728,575 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $120,834,000 after buying an additional 46,677 shares during the period. Foster & Motley Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 11.3% in the 3rd quarter. Foster & Motley Inc. now owns 10,227 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,696,000 after buying an additional 1,040 shares during the period. Armor Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Armor Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,739 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,615,000 after buying an additional 233 shares during the period. Finally, White Lighthouse Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. White Lighthouse Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,480 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,572,000 after buying an additional 74 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total value of $5,374,012.74. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 272,466 shares in the company, valued at $50,376,238.74. This represents a 9.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 93,048 shares of company stock worth $17,374,274. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on GOOGL. DZ Bank downgraded Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $208.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Citizens Jmp cut Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.59.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.0 %

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $163.89 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $183.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $176.47. The company has a market capitalization of $2.00 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. 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 12 month low of $146.74 and a 12 month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.