Moore Capital Management LP Makes New Investment in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Moore Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 27,698 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,275,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 16,248 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,094,000 after purchasing an additional 1,041 shares in the last quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC now owns 4,329 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $824,000 after buying an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. North Forty Two & Co. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $281,000. SageView Advisory Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 140.6% during the 4th quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 14,734 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,806,000 after buying an additional 8,610 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Requisite Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $927,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup restated a “sell” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 21st. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Westpark Capital restated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.94.

Alphabet Trading Up 3.4%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $159.58 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $160.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $176.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.94 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,824 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total transaction of $529,302.32. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,815,948.32. The trade was a 15.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. The trade was a 2.50% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 179,324 shares of company stock valued at $30,153,353. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.