Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Purchased by Invesco Ltd.

Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 19,939,547 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 944,858 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up 0.7% of Invesco Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position. Invesco Ltd.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,797,287,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,991,725 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,470,344,000 after buying an additional 3,189,592 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 104,777,092 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,894,651,000 after buying an additional 1,219,606 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 30,824,307 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,870,181,000 after acquiring an additional 875,480 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $5,166,070,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,843,149,000 after acquiring an additional 264,962 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the subject of several recent research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Citizens Jmp downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $208.65.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. The trade was a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 119,797 shares of company stock worth $21,089,470. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $147.74 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $177.04 and its 200 day moving average is $178.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.80 trillion, a P/E ratio of 18.35, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $143.70 and a 12 month high of $208.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.94%.

Alphabet Company 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.