Acorns Advisers LLC Purchases 512 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Acorns Advisers LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 9.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,783 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 512 shares during the quarter. Acorns Advisers LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,101,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 2.5% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,843,149,000 after acquiring an additional 264,962 shares during the period. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth about $166,000. McIlrath & Eck LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 12.9% during the 3rd quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 13,575 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,270,000 after purchasing an additional 1,546 shares in the last quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank bought a new position in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $263,000. Finally, Advisory Resource Group boosted its position in Alphabet by 8.7% in the third quarter. Advisory Resource Group now owns 10,277 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,718,000 after buying an additional 822 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $158.68 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.93 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $169.17 and a 200 day simple moving average of $177.83. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $208.70. 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 released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.90, for a total transaction of $32,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,613 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,232,544.70. This represents a 2.56 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, 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 in the company, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 115,663 shares of company stock valued at $20,286,447 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the topic of several research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Westpark Capital assumed coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $210.00 target price on the stock. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $208.71.

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.