Guardian Capital LP Has $23.88 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Guardian Capital LP lowered its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 13.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 126,123 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 19,682 shares during the period. Guardian Capital LP’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $23,875,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after purchasing an additional 22,100,902 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Alphabet by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after purchasing an additional 10,135,430 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,635,878,000 after buying an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 15.9% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 66,050,135 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,503,291,000 after buying an additional 9,042,271 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.3 %

Alphabet stock opened at $160.16 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year 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. The stock has a market cap of $1.95 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $161.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $175.49.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 9.36%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. The trade was a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total transaction of $32,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 7,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,232,544.70. This trade represents a 2.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 148,163 shares of company stock valued at $25,361,647 over the last quarter. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on GOOGL shares. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $189.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $198.89.

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.