Amundi Increases Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Amundi raised its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 18.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 29,866,698 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,694,621 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises approximately 2.0% of Amundi’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. Amundi owned 0.24% of Alphabet worth $5,792,317,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 10.1% in the third quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,186 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $363,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its holdings in Alphabet by 6.8% during the third quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 728,575 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $120,834,000 after buying an additional 46,677 shares during the last quarter. David J Yvars Group increased its holdings in Alphabet by 16.3% during the third quarter. David J Yvars Group now owns 4,290 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $712,000 after buying an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp increased its holdings in Alphabet by 1.0% during the third quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp now owns 66,226 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,984,000 after buying an additional 682 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNC Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% in the third quarter. BNC Wealth Management LLC now owns 65,616 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,243 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total value of $5,374,012.74. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 272,466 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,376,238.74. The trade was a 9.64 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total value of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 43,981 shares in the company, valued at $8,471,620.22. This represents a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 93,048 shares of company stock valued at $17,374,274. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $205.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday. Wolfe Research upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $232.00 to $229.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $210.59.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $162.80 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $183.13 and a 200 day simple moving average of $176.37. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $146.90 and a 12-month high of $207.05. 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 company has a market cap of $1.98 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.22, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. Sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 9.94%.

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.