Contrarius Group Holdings Ltd Buys New Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Contrarius Group Holdings Ltd purchased a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 400,625 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $75,838,000. Alphabet comprises approximately 4.6% of Contrarius Group Holdings Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 8th largest holding.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 10.1% in the third quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,186 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $363,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 3.1% during the third 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. Cardano Risk Management B.V. raised its position in Alphabet by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 1,511,083 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $250,613,000 after buying an additional 15,724 shares during the last quarter. Claro Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 16.5% during the third quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 37,307 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,187,000 after purchasing an additional 5,271 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its stake in Alphabet by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 776,885 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $128,846,000 after buying an additional 28,612 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Wedbush upped their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $205.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Citizens Jmp downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.49.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total value of $284,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 21,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,142,195.20. The trade was a 6.43 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.55, for a total value of $262,040.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,961,445.55. This represents a 6.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 87,992 shares of company stock worth $16,093,773 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $154.64 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $147.22 and a 52-week high of $207.05. The company has a fifty day moving average of $178.83 and a 200-day moving average of $177.10. The company has a market capitalization of $1.89 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Alphabet Company 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.