AQR Capital Management LLC Has $555.98 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,919,438 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 140,711 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 0.7% of AQR Capital Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. AQR Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $555,978,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $5,166,070,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $1,551,533,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,873,751,000 after purchasing an additional 7,917,625 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 181,679.1% during the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 7,225,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,376,066,000 after buying an additional 7,221,746 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors increased its stake in Alphabet by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $17,376,706,000 after purchasing an additional 5,758,244 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $162.42 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.98 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $208.70. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $163.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $177.34. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total transaction of $5,374,012.74. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 272,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,376,238.74. The trade was a 9.64 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 148,163 shares of company stock valued at $25,361,647 in the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on GOOG shares. KeyCorp cut their price target on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Citizens Jmp downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $203.94.

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.