Park Avenue Securities LLC Has $43.90 Million Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 17.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 231,919 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 33,921 shares during the quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $43,902,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. LMR Partners LLP bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $32,000. Denver PWM LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Quarry LP bought a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $53,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth approximately $66,000. Finally, Mendota Financial Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 19.0% in the third quarter. Mendota Financial Group LLC now owns 401 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $67,000 after acquiring an additional 64 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Scotiabank raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Pivotal Research increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wedbush boosted their price target on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Robert W. Baird reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $208.15.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $192.91 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $183.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $173.20. The stock has a market cap of $2.36 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $130.66 and a 12 month high of $201.42.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.85 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.55 EPS. Research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.61%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.36, for a total value of $3,990,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,084,306 shares in the company, valued at $369,672,512.16. This represents a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.78, for a total transaction of $1,898,190.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 330,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $59,741,643.48. This represents a 3.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 133,387 shares of company stock valued at $24,368,654 over the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.