Aubrey Capital Management Ltd Takes $2.33 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Aubrey Capital Management Ltd bought a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 16,700 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,333,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Meritage Group LP raised its position in Alphabet by 1,061.5% in 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 shares of Alphabet by 165.8% during 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 last quarter. Armor Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. IAG Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 55.9% in the 4th quarter. IAG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 343 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $55,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total value of $6,597,125.94. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,777,106 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $243,854,485.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.49, for a total transaction of $93,086.18. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 28,602 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,903,886.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total value of $6,597,125.94. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,777,106 shares in the company, valued at $243,854,485.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 275,129 shares of company stock valued at $40,382,765 over the last ninety days. 0.88% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GOOGL. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Alphabet from $165.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Alphabet from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Barclays increased their price objective on Alphabet from $173.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Argus increased their price objective on Alphabet from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $190.60.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL opened at $167.24 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $150.14 and its 200-day moving average is $142.32. The firm has a market cap of $2.08 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.15. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $103.97 and a 52-week high of $174.71.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 10th.

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.