Cetera Investment Advisers Buys 32,802 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,464,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 32,802 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 0.6% of Cetera Investment Advisers’ portfolio, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $277,168,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after buying an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $18,672,198,000 after purchasing an additional 7,574,417 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in Alphabet by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,635,878,000 after buying an additional 10,037,685 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Alphabet by 17.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $13,178,470,000 after acquiring an additional 10,135,430 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $178.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $199.46.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,824 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total transaction of $529,302.32. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at $2,815,948.32. This trade represents a 15.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 146,824 shares of company stock valued at $25,086,603 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $164.21 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $207.05. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $160.02 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $175.50. The firm has a market cap of $1.99 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion for 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 firm earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.36%.

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.