Davis R M Inc. Grows Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Davis R M Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.2% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 919,485 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,051 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 3.4% of Davis R M Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest position. Davis R M Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $174,059,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. LMR Partners LLP bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth $32,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 518.8% in the fourth quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 166 shares during the period. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp grew its holdings in Alphabet by 36.1% during the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. DA Davidson increased their price objective on Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $208.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.59.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $163.99 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $182.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $176.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $147.22 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The company has a market capitalization of $2.00 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.37, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share 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%. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,374 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,606,213.28. This trade represents a 8.38 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,293,285.89. This trade represents a 2.50 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 93,048 shares of company stock valued at $17,374,274 in the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.