Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Position Lessened by Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lowered its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 79,786,850 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,556,287 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 1.8% of Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $15,194,609,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Crake Asset Management LLP grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 620.2% during the fourth quarter. Crake Asset Management LLP now owns 749,000 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $142,640,000 after buying an additional 645,000 shares in the last quarter. Quantessence Capital LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $2,758,000. Turim 21 Investimentos Ltda. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 68.3% in the 4th quarter. Turim 21 Investimentos Ltda. now owns 123,248 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $25,340,000 after purchasing an additional 49,997 shares during the last quarter. Alta Advisers Ltd raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Alta Advisers Ltd now owns 15,983 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,044,000 after purchasing an additional 1,783 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Harvest Investment Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC now owns 4,329 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $824,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on GOOG. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark restated a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $208.38.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $153.90 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.88 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.12, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $208.70. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $165.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $177.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.51, for a total value of $3,281,671.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 43,111 shares in the company, valued at $7,997,521.61. This represents a 29.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 148,163 shares of company stock worth $25,361,647. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.