Coleford Investment Management Ltd. Takes Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Coleford Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 2,100 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $400,000. Alphabet makes up approximately 0.1% of Coleford Investment Management Ltd.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest position.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 16,248 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $3,094,000 after acquiring an additional 1,041 shares during the last quarter. North Forty Two & Co. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $281,000. SageView Advisory Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 140.6% during the fourth quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 14,734 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,806,000 after purchasing an additional 8,610 shares during the period. Requisite Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $927,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 10.9% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,184,399 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,384,039,000 after buying an additional 704,875 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total transaction of $5,374,012.74. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 272,466 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $50,376,238.74. The trade was a 9.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,340 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 148,163 shares of company stock worth $25,361,647. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG traded down $2.14 during trading on Friday, hitting $153.36. The company had a trading volume of 19,461,666 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,435,374. The company has a market cap of $1.87 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.05, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The business's 50-day moving average is $167.16 and its 200 day moving average is $177.47. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group decreased their target price on Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank raised their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Citizens Jmp lowered shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Westpark Capital assumed coverage on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. They issued a "buy" rating and a $210.00 price objective on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $210.88.

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.