Anchor Capital Advisors LLC Has $1.47 Million Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Anchor Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 7,747 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the quarter. Anchor Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,467,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GOOGL. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 20,990.0% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,186,748 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,171,151,000 after buying an additional 6,157,413 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 7.7% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $513,024,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,154,651,000 after buying an additional 2,626,431 shares during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in Alphabet by 26.9% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 10,064,598 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,669,300,000 after purchasing an additional 2,136,128 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.55, for a total transaction of $559,856.70. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares in the company, valued at $4,085,531.55. This trade represents a 12.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total transaction of $5,374,012.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 272,466 shares in the company, valued at $50,376,238.74. The trade was a 9.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 95,882 shares of company stock worth $17,934,130 over the last three months. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOGL has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $205.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.62.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL opened at $162.76 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.03 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 company has a market cap of $1.98 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $186.22 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.39.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

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.