591,621 Shares in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Purchased by Criteria Caixa S.A.U.

Criteria Caixa S.A.U. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 591,621 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $111,994,000. Alphabet accounts for 16.0% of Criteria Caixa S.A.U.’s holdings, making the stock its largest position.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,283,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,871,384,000 after purchasing an additional 337,031 shares in the last quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank boosted its stake in Alphabet by 38.0% during the 3rd quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank now owns 4,700 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $779,000 after purchasing an additional 1,294 shares during the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 37,379 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,199,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.0% during the third quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,306 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $382,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd increased its holdings in Alphabet by 19.2% in the 3rd quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 137,669 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,703,000 after buying an additional 22,169 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $161.96 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $207.05. The company has a market cap of $1.97 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.12, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The business has a 50 day moving average of $162.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $175.52.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.16, for a total value of $5,075,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,685,196 shares in the company, valued at approximately $419,320,207.36. The trade was a 1.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total value of $32,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 7,613 shares in the company, valued at $1,232,544.70. The trade was a 2.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 148,163 shares of company stock worth $25,361,647 in the last quarter. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Citizens Jmp lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $178.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $198.63.

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.