Mariner LLC Acquires 121,737 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Mariner LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 7.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,656,972 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 121,737 shares during the quarter. Mariner LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $315,566,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Peninsula Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Peninsula Wealth LLC now owns 8,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,599,000 after buying an additional 270 shares in the last quarter. Trustmark National Bank Trust Department raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Trustmark National Bank Trust Department now owns 33,885 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,453,000 after acquiring an additional 247 shares during the last quarter. LFL Advisers LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. LFL Advisers LLC now owns 123,030 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $23,430,000 after acquiring an additional 1,675 shares during the period. Giverny Capital Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 16.9% in the fourth quarter. Giverny Capital Inc. now owns 755,342 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $143,847,000 after acquiring an additional 109,162 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SageView Advisory Group LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 140.6% in the fourth quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 14,734 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,806,000 after purchasing an additional 8,610 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total transaction of $550,702.88. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,847 shares in the company, valued at $3,468,029.04. The trade was a 13.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 118,297 shares of company stock worth $20,804,770. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on GOOG. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Benchmark restated a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Westpark Capital started coverage on Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $210.00 price objective for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $208.71.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.6 %

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $159.40 on Monday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $170.50 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $177.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.94 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.80, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

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.