Thornburg Investment Management Inc. Purchases 513,244 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Thornburg Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Rating) by 1,810.2% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 541,597 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 513,244 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 0.9% of Thornburg Investment Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Thornburg Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $51,804,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Spreng Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 4.0% in the first quarter. Spreng Capital Management Inc. now owns 131 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $364,000 after acquiring an additional 5 shares in the last quarter. West Family Investments Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the first quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 1,754 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,878,000 after purchasing an additional 6 shares during the last quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.1% during the first quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc. now owns 296 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $823,000 after purchasing an additional 6 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisory Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% during the first quarter. Private Advisory Group LLC now owns 401 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,115,000 after purchasing an additional 7 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Weik Capital Management raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% during the first quarter. Weik Capital Management now owns 1,533 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,264,000 after purchasing an additional 8 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 34.06% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL opened at $93.97 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $94.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $96.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 2.34 and a current ratio of 2.38. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $83.34 and a 1 year high of $143.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.20 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.09.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The information services provider reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.14 by ($0.09). Alphabet had a return on equity of 23.54% and a net margin of 21.20%. The company had revenue of $76.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $63.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.53 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 5.12 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on GOOGL. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 3rd. MKM Partners lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $120.00 to $126.00 in a report on Friday, February 3rd. Loop Capital lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $130.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, February 10th. Finally, New Street Research began coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, January 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $118.00 price target on the stock. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $132.32.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 637 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total transaction of $57,425.55. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 25,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,293,596.30. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 637 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total transaction of $57,425.55. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 25,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,293,596.30. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Ann Mather sold 380 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.24, for a total transaction of $33,911.20. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,300 shares in the company, valued at $1,008,412. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 36,745 shares of company stock valued at $3,424,078. Insiders own 11.44% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company Profile

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Alphabet, Inc engages in the business of delivering online advertising, cloud-based solutions that provide enterprise customers with infrastructure and platform services, the provision of communication and collaboration tools, and sales of other products and services such as apps and in-app purchases, hardware, and subscription-based products.