Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC Increases Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,980 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 108 shares during the quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,710,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 114,802,133 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,193,768,000 after buying an additional 5,655,022 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 103,557,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $17,247,208,000 after acquiring an additional 259,213 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 10.3% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,334,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,573,125,000 after acquiring an additional 3,113,395 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 9.1% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,424,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,578,793,000 after purchasing an additional 1,291,274 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.5% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,843,149,000 after purchasing an additional 264,962 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on GOOG. Benchmark restated a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup increased their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research lifted their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.13.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. The trade was a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total value of $232,950.47. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,515 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,007,191.15. The trade was a 5.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 134,299 shares of company stock worth $25,055,751. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $174.70 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $192.98 and a 200 day moving average of $177.64. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $2.13 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.70, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $131.55 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.94%.

Alphabet Company 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.