GG Group Ventures LLC Grows Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

GG Group Ventures LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 186 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 1.3% of GG Group Ventures LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. GG Group Ventures LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,008,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in 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 valued at $1,871,384,000 after acquiring an additional 337,031 shares during the period. Passumpsic Savings Bank lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 38.0% in the 3rd quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank now owns 4,700 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $779,000 after purchasing an additional 1,294 shares during the period. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% in the third quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 37,379 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,199,000 after buying an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in 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 buying an additional 130 shares during the period. Finally, Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd increased its holdings in Alphabet by 19.2% during the third quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 137,669 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,703,000 after buying an additional 22,169 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Rosenblatt Securities cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $189.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 31st. DA Davidson cut their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $198.89.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $160.16 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The business’s 50 day moving average is $161.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $175.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.95 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.90, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company 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 represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.16, for a total transaction of $5,075,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,685,196 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $419,320,207.36. This trade represents a 1.20 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 14th. The shares were 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 directly owns 7,613 shares in the company, valued at $1,232,544.70. This trade represents a 2.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 148,163 shares of company stock valued at $25,361,647. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

About Alphabet

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.