Rossby Financial LCC Buys New Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Rossby Financial LCC purchased a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 7,917 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,508,000. Alphabet comprises about 0.9% of Rossby Financial LCC’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest holding.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GOOG. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,166,070,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $1,551,533,000. GQG Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 181,679.1% during the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 7,225,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,376,066,000 after buying an additional 7,221,746 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5,712.8% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,367,831 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $831,810,000 after buying an additional 4,292,689 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC boosted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 4,247,379 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. The trade was a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 118,297 shares of company stock valued at $20,804,770 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on GOOG shares. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank increased their price target on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their price target on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $208.71.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $159.40 on Monday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $170.50 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $177.99. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The stock has a market cap of $1.94 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. 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.