&Partners Boosts Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

&Partners grew its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 72.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 9,697 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,087 shares during the period. &Partners’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,476,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $4,101,040,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 11.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 95,941,129 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,649,838,000 after purchasing an additional 9,703,425 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $11,600,970,000. Cerity Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 198.7% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 3,882,882 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $547,215,000 after purchasing an additional 2,583,128 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 93.9% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,591,383 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $647,064,000 after purchasing an additional 2,222,950 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $180.26 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $171.61 and its 200-day moving average price is $154.11. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.83 and a 12-month high of $182.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.23 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 2.15, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.38. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. The firm had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $78.75 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.17 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a — dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 10th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 12.27%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.79, for a total transaction of $105,566.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,284 shares in the company, valued at $4,532,870.36. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.79, for a total value of $105,566.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,284 shares in the company, valued at $4,532,870.36. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.67, for a total transaction of $3,502,575.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,325,513 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $362,012,608.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 135,958 shares of company stock valued at $22,383,553. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $165.67.

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.