Van ECK Associates Corp Acquires 214,420 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 7.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,117,971 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 214,420 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $435,549,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. LWM Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. LWM Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,008 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $560,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. Steele Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $416,000. Adell Harriman & Carpenter Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Adell Harriman & Carpenter Inc. now owns 133,437 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $18,640,000 after acquiring an additional 3,083 shares during the last quarter. Orca Investment Management LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. Orca Investment Management LLC now owns 19,273 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,692,000 after acquiring an additional 1,187 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Skylands Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 18.5% in the fourth quarter. Skylands Capital LLC now owns 166,825 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $23,304,000 after acquiring an additional 26,025 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.80, for a total transaction of $3,753,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,280,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $380,389,234.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,258 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.97, for a total transaction of $508,150.26. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 144,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,566,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.80, for a total value of $3,753,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,280,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $380,389,234.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 252,629 shares of company stock worth $37,091,240 over the last ninety days. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.9 %

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $171.25 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $105.16 and a twelve month high of $174.71. The company has a market cap of $2.12 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.02. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $151.40 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $142.83.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its 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 net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. The business had revenue of $80.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $66.04 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.17 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on GOOGL. JMP Securities increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on Alphabet from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective (up from $160.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $190.60.

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.