Stevens Capital Management LP Makes New Investment in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Stevens Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 13,211 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Meritage Group LP increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1,061.5% during the 3rd quarter. Meritage Group LP now owns 302 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 276 shares during the last quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 165.8% in the third quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 319 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares during the period. Armor Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 31.0% in the fourth quarter. Armor Investment Advisors LLC now owns 338 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $55,000. Finally, LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 301.5% during the 4th quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 522 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $73,000 after purchasing an additional 392 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. UBS Group upped their price objective on Alphabet from $150.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Argus increased their price target on Alphabet from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Wolfe Research lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $190.60.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $167.24 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $149.67 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $142.12. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $103.97 and a twelve month high of $174.71. The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The company has a market capitalization of $2.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.65, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.02.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.40. Alphabet had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 25.90%. The business had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $66.04 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.17 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total value of $3,291,525.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,377,691 shares in the company, valued at $347,832,416.39. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total value of $508,150.26. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 144,685 shares in the company, valued at $22,566,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total value of $3,291,525.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,377,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $347,832,416.39. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 275,129 shares of company stock worth $40,382,765 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

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.