Handelsbanken Fonder AB Buys 274,466 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 10.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,902,642 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 274,466 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 2.1% of Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $552,779,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wealth Alliance raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Alliance now owns 19,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,666,000 after buying an additional 661 shares during the period. Sunpointe LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 8.8% in the fourth quarter. Sunpointe LLC now owns 8,445 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,608,000 after purchasing an additional 681 shares during the period. LMG Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. LMG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,185 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,701,000 after acquiring an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Corps Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $663,000. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 656,458 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $125,016,000 after acquiring an additional 35,657 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on GOOG shares. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Seaport Res Ptn raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Pivotal Research boosted their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.13.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total transaction of $232,950.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 23,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,007,191.15. This represents a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total transaction of $3,245,761.20. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,449,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $265,914,995.28. This represents a 1.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 134,299 shares of company stock valued at $25,055,751. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 2.7 %

Alphabet stock opened at $181.58 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $2.21 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.00. 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 Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $131.55 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $194.02 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $177.45.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current 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 given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

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.