Intact Investment Management Inc. Purchases 124,220 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Intact Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 491.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 149,500 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 124,220 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 1.0% of Intact Investment Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 26th largest position. Intact Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $28,300,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 20,990.0% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,186,748 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,171,151,000 after buying an additional 6,157,413 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 18.7% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 29,866,698 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,792,317,000 after acquiring an additional 4,694,621 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 7.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 4,567,275 shares in the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $513,024,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,154,651,000 after purchasing an additional 2,626,431 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GOOGL. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.59.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $170.56 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.08 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $181.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $176.86. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $147.22 and a 1 year high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS 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%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS 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 given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,374 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total transaction of $238,347.78. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,606,213.28. The trade was a 8.38 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 93,048 shares of company stock valued at $17,374,274. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.