Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors LLC Buys 1,606 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors LLC boosted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 56.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,446 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,606 shares during the quarter. Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $842,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GOOGL. FMR LLC raised 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 acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.3% in the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Alphabet by 16.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,635,878,000 after purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Alphabet by 17.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,178,470,000 after purchasing an additional 10,135,430 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total value of $32,380.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,232,544.70. This represents a 2.56 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.16, for a total transaction of $5,075,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,685,196 shares in the company, valued at $419,320,207.36. The trade was a 1.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 148,164 shares of company stock worth $25,357,390 in the last ninety days. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.6 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $161.30 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $207.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $160.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $175.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.97 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The company 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 last year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. Research analysts anticipate 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. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 10th. DZ Bank lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $199.46.

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.