Advisors Capital Management LLC Has $95.88 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Advisors Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 0.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 503,464 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 3,488 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.5% of Advisors Capital Management LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Advisors Capital Management LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $95,880,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 264,962 shares in the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at $166,000. McIlrath & Eck LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 12.9% in the 3rd quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 13,575 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,270,000 after buying an additional 1,546 shares during the last quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $263,000. Finally, Advisory Resource Group increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 8.7% in the third quarter. Advisory Resource Group now owns 10,277 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,718,000 after buying an additional 822 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on GOOG. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. KeyCorp dropped their target price on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. UBS Group cut their price target on Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $208.71.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG traded down $3.18 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $155.50. The stock had a trading volume of 16,903,318 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,384,837. The company's fifty day moving average is $169.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $177.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares in the company, valued at $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total value of $32,380.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 7,613 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,232,544.70. The trade was a 2.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 115,663 shares of company stock worth $20,286,447. Insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

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.