Black Swift Group LLC Boosts Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Black Swift Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 21.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,479 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 779 shares during the period. Black Swift Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $853,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $1,551,533,000. Promus Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $286,000. Vision Financial Markets LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $699,000. Arizona State Retirement System increased its stake in Alphabet by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 1,462,450 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $278,509,000 after acquiring an additional 7,668 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vantage Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $218,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total transaction of $3,245,761.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 1,449,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $265,914,995.28. This trade represents a 1.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 134,316 shares of company stock worth $25,062,887 over the last three months. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Citizens Jmp cut Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price objective on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.13.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $175.75 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $189.85 and a 200-day moving average of $177.94. The firm has a market cap of $2.14 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $134.80 and a 1-year high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued 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%. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

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.