Sierra Ocean LLC Buys Shares of 4,541 Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Sierra Ocean LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 4,541 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $860,000. Alphabet makes up about 0.7% of Sierra Ocean LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest position.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 222,555,548 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $36,910,838,000 after acquiring an additional 743,369 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,154,651,000 after acquiring an additional 2,626,431 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 7.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,559,240,000 after acquiring an additional 4,567,275 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.5% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 49,857,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,268,933,000 after acquiring an additional 1,237,385 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 37,233,079 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,175,106,000 after acquiring an additional 523,416 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $170.33 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.08 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.16, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. The company’s 50-day moving average is $190.58 and its 200-day moving average is $176.11. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $130.66 and a fifty-two week 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.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total transaction of $3,245,761.20. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,449,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $265,914,995.28. This trade represents a 1.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 134,309 shares of company stock valued at $25,057,490. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of several research reports. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Bank of America reissued a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Loop Capital increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $210.62.

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.