252,099 Shares in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Bought by Meridiem Capital Partners LP

Meridiem Capital Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 252,099 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $47,722,000. Alphabet accounts for about 4.2% of Meridiem Capital Partners LP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC lifted its stake in 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 last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of 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 valued at $13,635,878,000 after purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 10,135,430 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Up 3.7%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $158.46 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.92 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.68, 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 current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $207.05. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $158.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $175.22.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors 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. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.36%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Westpark Capital restated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. DA Davidson lowered their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their target price on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.75.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,824 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total value of $529,302.32. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,815,948.32. The trade was a 15.82% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,652,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $413,555,306.40. This represents a 1.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 179,324 shares of company stock worth $30,153,353. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.