Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich’s 2nd Largest Position

Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich decreased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 7,605,883 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 12,115 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 4.8% of Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,552,300,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,186 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $363,000 after acquiring an additional 201 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc grew its position in Alphabet by 6.8% during the third quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 728,575 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $120,834,000 after buying an additional 46,677 shares during the period. David J Yvars Group grew its holdings in Alphabet by 16.3% in the third quarter. David J Yvars Group now owns 4,290 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $712,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% in the third quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp now owns 66,226 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,984,000 after purchasing an additional 682 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNC Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. BNC Wealth Management LLC now owns 65,616 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,243 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $162.80 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $146.90 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The company has a market cap of $1.98 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $183.13 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $176.37.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. Research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.94%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total value of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,471,620.22. The trade was a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 93,048 shares of company stock valued at $17,374,274 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on GOOGL. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Wolfe Research increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.59.

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.