Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stake Boosted by Sei Investments Co.

Sei Investments Co. lifted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 12.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,001,698 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 325,352 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 0.7% of Sei Investments Co.’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest holding. Sei Investments Co.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $571,641,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,843,149,000 after acquiring an additional 264,962 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 13,526 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,261,000 after acquiring an additional 909 shares during the last quarter. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. now owns 1,835 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $307,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 462,966 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $77,403,000 after acquiring an additional 12,818 shares during the last quarter. Finally, L & S Advisors Inc raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.0% during the third quarter. L & S Advisors Inc now owns 9,985 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,669,000 after buying an additional 472 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $166.25 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $184.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is $177.94. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $148.20 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.03 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued 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 0.48%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.55, for a total transaction of $262,040.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,961,445.55. This represents a 6.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 93,048 shares of company stock worth $17,374,274. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOG has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

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.