Caxton Associates LP Invests $1.51 Million in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Caxton Associates LP purchased a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 7,975 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,510,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,283,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,871,384,000 after buying an additional 337,031 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 7.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,559,240,000 after acquiring an additional 4,567,275 shares in the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 100,467 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,018,000 after purchasing an additional 4,377 shares during the last quarter. Boltwood Capital Management increased its position in Alphabet by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Boltwood Capital Management now owns 23,593 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,466,000 after purchasing an additional 886 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Market Strategies LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital Market Strategies LLC now owns 11,096 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,101,000 after purchasing an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.1 %

GOOGL stock opened at $164.21 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $207.05. The company has a market cap of $1.99 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.40, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a fifty day moving average of $160.02 and a 200-day moving average of $175.50.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $76.49 billion during 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 period in the previous year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total transaction of $5,374,012.74. Following the sale, the director now owns 272,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,376,238.74. This trade represents a 9.64 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,824 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total value of $529,302.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,815,948.32. The trade was a 15.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 146,824 shares of company stock worth $25,086,603. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Tigress Financial increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Citigroup upped their price target on Alphabet from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.46.

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.