Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG Grows Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 4.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 506,535 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 20,855 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 2.1% of Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG’s holdings, making the stock its 10th largest position. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $96,465,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Swedbank AB increased its position in Alphabet by 0.6% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,338,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,394,181,000 after buying an additional 51,226 shares during the last quarter. Chicago Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% in the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 96,001 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $16,050,000 after acquiring an additional 1,667 shares in the last quarter. AA Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 15.9% in the third quarter. AA Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,147 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,195,000 after purchasing an additional 982 shares during the period. E&G Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. E&G Advisors LP now owns 7,959 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,331,000 after buying an additional 355 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Whitaker Myers Wealth Managers LTD. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.2% during the 3rd quarter. Whitaker Myers Wealth Managers LTD. now owns 3,792 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $634,000 after buying an additional 557 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.5 %

Alphabet stock opened at $186.87 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $194.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.71. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $131.55 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. The stock has a market cap of $2.29 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.21, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share 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%. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total value of $3,975,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $364,259,266.02. This represents a 1.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citizens Jmp lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.13.

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.