T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. Takes Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 50,738 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $9,663,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOG. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,991,725 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $22,470,344,000 after buying an additional 3,189,592 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 104,777,092 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $19,894,651,000 after purchasing an additional 1,219,606 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its stake in Alphabet by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $17,376,706,000 after buying an additional 5,758,244 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 39,148,500 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $7,455,571,000 after acquiring an additional 294,556 shares during the period. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 14.5% in the fourth quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 33,504,543 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $6,380,605,000 after purchasing an additional 4,247,379 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of GOOG stock traded down $0.36 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $162.06. The company had a trading volume of 15,933,490 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,304,539. The company has a market capitalization of $1.98 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $163.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $177.34. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $208.70. 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 - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. Alphabet's payout ratio is currently 9.36%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. KeyCorp decreased their price target on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Citizens Jmp cut shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $203.94.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,340 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 148,163 shares of company stock valued at $25,361,647. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

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.