Prakash Investment Advisors LLC Acquires New Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Prakash Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 9,310 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,762,000. Alphabet makes up about 1.7% of Prakash Investment Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 222,555,548 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $36,910,838,000 after purchasing an additional 743,369 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in 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 buying an additional 2,626,431 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 7.7% in the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.5% in the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% during the 3rd 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $173.02 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $189.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $176.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.49, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $130.85 and a twelve month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted 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%. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,374 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total transaction of $238,347.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,606,213.28. This represents a 8.38 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 134,316 shares of company stock valued at $25,062,887 over the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Robert W. Baird reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.62.

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.