Ninety One SA PTY Ltd Buys 614 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Ninety One SA PTY Ltd raised its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 73,633 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 614 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 3.1% of Ninety One SA PTY Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest position. Ninety One SA PTY Ltd’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $13,939,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GOOGL. Newton One Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $76,000. Welch Group LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 59,438 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,367,000 after buying an additional 2,141 shares in the last quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. now owns 49,510 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,372,000 after buying an additional 1,030 shares during the period. Robbins Farley lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 19,202 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,635,000 after buying an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth Financial Services LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 109.7% in the 4th quarter. Commonwealth Financial Services LLC now owns 7,580 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,435,000 after acquiring an additional 3,966 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Pivotal Research increased their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wolfe Research raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Wedbush lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.62.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $186.14 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $130.66 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $192.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $174.95. The company has a market capitalization of $2.28 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total transaction of $3,975,075.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,061,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $364,259,266.02. The trade was a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total value of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $52,329,576.64. The trade was a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 89,529 shares of company stock worth $16,600,078 over the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet 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.