48,158 Shares in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Purchased by Postrock Partners LLC

Postrock Partners LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 48,158 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $9,116,000. Alphabet makes up about 4.4% of Postrock Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 10.1% during the third quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,186 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $363,000 after buying an additional 201 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.8% during 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 acquiring an additional 46,677 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,283,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,871,384,000 after acquiring an additional 337,031 shares during the last quarter. TRU Independence Asset Management 2 LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $820,000. Finally, GDS Wealth Management increased its position in Alphabet by 3.0% during the third quarter. GDS Wealth Management now owns 114,056 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $18,916,000 after purchasing an additional 3,354 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GOOGL. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Alphabet from $232.00 to $220.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Ten 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 company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.59.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 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 owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 93,048 shares of company stock worth $17,374,274. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $170.56 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.19, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $147.22 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $181.72 and its 200-day simple moving average is $176.86.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 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.