Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Bought by IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd

IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 31.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,410 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,549 shares during the quarter. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,221,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 1,041 shares during the last quarter. North Forty Two & Co. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $281,000. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 14.4% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 116,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,642,000 after buying an additional 14,738 shares during the period. Requisite Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $927,000. Finally, Stevens Capital Management LP raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 172.9% in the 3rd quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP now owns 91,237 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,254,000 after acquiring an additional 57,810 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.8 %

GOOG opened at $164.08 on Friday. 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 Inc. has a one year low of $148.20 and a one year high of $208.70. The company has a market cap of $2.00 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.38, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $182.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $178.26.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share 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%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Citizens Jmp lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “negative” 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, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. This trade represents a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.55, for a total transaction of $262,040.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,961,445.55. The trade was a 6.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 104,812 shares of company stock valued at $19,336,979. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.