Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC Buys 364,728 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 34.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,433,793 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 364,728 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 1.8% of Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $271,417,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rockbridge Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $3,119,000. Optivise Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,035,000 after acquiring an additional 403 shares in the last quarter. Community Bank N.A. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 46,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,741,000 after buying an additional 2,790 shares in the last quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 30.0% in the 4th quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 61,792 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,816,000 after buying an additional 14,262 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Absolute Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 14.0% in the 4th quarter. Absolute Capital Management LLC now owns 2,096 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $401,000 after buying an additional 258 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $166.54 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $207.05. The stock 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 current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS 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 last year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. 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 the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total transaction 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 $413,555,306.40. This represents a 1.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total value of $104,537.09. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders 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.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. KeyCorp boosted their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. DA Davidson lowered their price target on Alphabet from $200.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Bank of America boosted their price target on Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.75.

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.