Ironsides Asset Advisors LLC Increases Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Ironsides Asset Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 32.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,951 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 717 shares during the period. Ironsides Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $559,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 10.1% during the third quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,186 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $363,000 after buying an additional 201 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.8% in the third quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 728,575 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $120,834,000 after buying an additional 46,677 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,283,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,871,384,000 after buying an additional 337,031 shares during the period. Saturna Capital Corp boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Saturna Capital Corp now owns 1,430,995 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $237,331,000 after acquiring an additional 4,003 shares during the period. Finally, Arjuna Capital grew its position in Alphabet by 0.7% in the third quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 102,574 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $17,012,000 after acquiring an additional 706 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 11,764 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.84, for a total value of $1,962,705.76. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 49,037 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,181,333.08. The trade was a 19.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total transaction of $5,374,012.74. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 272,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,376,238.74. This represents a 9.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 104,812 shares of company stock valued at $19,336,979. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and set a $205.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. DA Davidson upped their target price on Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $208.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.59.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $162.24 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.98 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $180.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $176.68. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $147.22 and a 52-week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (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, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

Alphabet Company 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.