Sava Infond d.o.o. Takes Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Sava Infond d.o.o. acquired a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 2,255 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $429,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,843,149,000 after purchasing an additional 264,962 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,445,000. Cynosure Group LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 42.8% in the 3rd quarter. Cynosure Group LLC now owns 3,861 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $646,000 after buying an additional 1,158 shares during the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 42.9% in the third quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 19,288 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,225,000 after buying an additional 5,791 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Providence Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 6.5% during the third quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 92,977 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,545,000 after acquiring an additional 5,644 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fourteen 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 presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.13.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.8 %

GOOG stock opened at $164.08 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $148.20 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. The company has a market capitalization of $2.00 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $182.36 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $178.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total value of $3,239,868.40. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. This represents a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 104,812 shares of company stock worth $19,336,979. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.