Board of the Pension Protection Fund Invests $647,000 in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 3,400 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $647,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Rockland Trust Co. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 11.9% in the 4th quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 22,950 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,371,000 after buying an additional 2,443 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 12.8% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 80,272 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,287,000 after acquiring an additional 9,089 shares in the last quarter. Community Trust & Investment Co. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Community Trust & Investment Co. now owns 402,460 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $76,644,000 after purchasing an additional 5,873 shares in the last quarter. Define Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $249,000. Finally, R.H. Investment Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $4,452,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Scotiabank assumed coverage on Alphabet in a research note on Friday, October 11th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 target price for the company. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $196.98 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $184.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $174.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $131.55 and a 52-week high of $202.88. The stock has a market cap of $2.41 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.12, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.55 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.42, for a total value of $234,331.14. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 26,349 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,516,745.58. This trade represents a 4.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible 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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $52,329,576.64. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

About Alphabet

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.