Lagoda Investment Management L.P. Acquires 3,474 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Lagoda Investment Management L.P. increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 6.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 54,784 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,474 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 5.6% of Lagoda Investment Management L.P.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Lagoda Investment Management L.P.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $10,433,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Laurion Capital Management LP acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $762,000. Lionshead Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $487,000. Investment Management Corp of Ontario lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 22.4% in the 4th quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario now owns 348,050 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $66,283,000 after purchasing an additional 63,720 shares in the last quarter. Investor s Fiduciary Advisor Network LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,980,000. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 30,827,999 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,870,944,000 after buying an additional 1,467,805 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOG has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup restated a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $203.94.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,824 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total transaction of $529,302.32. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at $2,815,948.32. This represents a 15.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 179,324 shares of company stock valued at $30,153,353. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $154.38 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $1.87 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $160.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $177.02. 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 Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.