Sovran Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Sovran Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 7,686 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,458,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 43,005.6% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $31,086,250,000 after buying an additional 18,700,111 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 116.4% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,670,225 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,437,957,000 after buying an additional 4,662,809 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 7.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 63,667,407 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $10,559,240,000 after buying an additional 4,567,275 shares during the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter valued at approximately $513,024,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 134,030,679 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $22,154,651,000 after buying an additional 2,626,431 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total value of $3,245,761.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,449,286 shares of the company's stock, valued at $265,914,995.28. This trade represents a 1.21 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,367 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total transaction of $232,950.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,515 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,007,191.15. The trade was a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 134,299 shares of company stock worth $25,055,751. Insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on GOOGL. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp cut shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Roth Mkm raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $206.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $210.62.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock traded down $4.90 on Friday, hitting $179.66. 35,094,289 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 28,166,218. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The firm has a market cap of $2.19 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.32, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $192.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $175.69. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $130.66 and a 52 week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

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.