Caprock Group LLC Purchases 64,213 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Caprock Group LLC lifted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 51.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 189,739 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 64,213 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 1.4% of Caprock Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 10th largest position. Caprock Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $34,561,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. NINE MASTS CAPITAL Ltd acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $5,297,000. Summit X LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 63.0% during the fourth quarter. Summit X LLC now owns 25,400 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,548,000 after buying an additional 9,820 shares during the last quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 258,299 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $36,082,000 after buying an additional 4,634 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 8,568,734 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,196,966,000 after buying an additional 278,134 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gainplan LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 24.6% during the fourth quarter. Gainplan LLC now owns 2,951 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $412,000 after buying an additional 583 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $206.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Alphabet from $205.00 to $190.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $181.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $201.08.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $163.59 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $164.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $165.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 2.08. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $120.21 and a 1-year high of $191.75. The company has a market cap of $2.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.60 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.44 EPS. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total transaction of $600,175.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,655.91. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total value of $125,126.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 30,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,623,355.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total value of $600,175.38. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,655.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 180,167 shares of company stock valued at $29,762,606. 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.