Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Position Raised by Polar Capital Holdings Plc

Polar Capital Holdings Plc boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 22.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,865,626 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 346,665 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 2.0% of Polar Capital Holdings Plc’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Polar Capital Holdings Plc’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $353,163,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. FMR LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $18,672,198,000 after buying an additional 7,574,417 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after acquiring an additional 10,037,685 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after acquiring an additional 10,135,430 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on GOOGL shares. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Susquehanna lowered their price target on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 25th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, DA Davidson cut their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,690 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was 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 directly owns 43,111 shares in the company, valued at $7,997,521.61. This represents a 29.09% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,824 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total transaction of $529,302.32. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,815,948.32. This represents a 15.82% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 179,324 shares of company stock worth $30,153,353 over the last quarter. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 3.7%

GOOGL opened at $165.37 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.01 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.54, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $158.21 and a 200-day moving average price of $175.05. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released 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 business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

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.