Wesleyan Assurance Society Increases Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Wesleyan Assurance Society increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 19.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 433,945 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 69,145 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up 6.3% of Wesleyan Assurance Society’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Wesleyan Assurance Society’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $82,154,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,559,240,000 after acquiring an additional 4,567,275 shares during the period. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 23,533 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,455,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares during the period. Wealth Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 1,582 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $299,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Cvfg LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,519,000. Finally, Eagle Rock Investment Company LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Eagle Rock Investment Company LLC now owns 128,056 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $24,241,000 after purchasing an additional 2,048 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on GOOGL. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. DA Davidson lowered their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $199.75.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $166.54 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.69, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $158.20 and a 200-day moving average price of $175.00. 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 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total value of $5,066,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,652,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $413,555,306.40. The trade was a 1.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total value of $3,245,761.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,449,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $265,914,995.28. This trade represents a 1.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 129,744 shares of company stock valued at $20,968,366 over the last ninety days. 11.64% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Alphabet

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.