Empowered Funds LLC Acquires 5,865 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Empowered Funds LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 230,302 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,865 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 0.6% of Empowered Funds LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $43,596,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 43,005.6% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,086,250,000 after acquiring an additional 18,700,111 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 116.4% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,670,225 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,437,957,000 after purchasing an additional 4,662,809 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 7.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,559,240,000 after purchasing an additional 4,567,275 shares during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at $513,024,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 2.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,154,651,000 after buying an additional 2,626,431 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. China Renaissance upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Roth Mkm upped their target price on Alphabet from $206.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $210.62.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the sale, the director now owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,329,576.64. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 67,029 shares of company stock worth $12,625,003 over the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.8 %

GOOGL stock opened at $183.77 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.25 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.99. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $193.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $175.30. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $130.66 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

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.