Clark Capital Management Group Inc. Has $2.45 Million Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Clark Capital Management Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 7.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,839 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 894 shares during the period. Clark Capital Management Group Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,445,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $5,166,070,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $1,551,533,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,873,751,000 after purchasing an additional 7,917,625 shares during the period. GQG Partners LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 181,679.1% in the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 7,225,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,376,066,000 after purchasing an additional 7,221,746 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors increased its position in Alphabet by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,236,069 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $17,376,706,000 after buying an additional 5,758,244 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Scotiabank decreased their target price on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 21st. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Westpark Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Benchmark restated a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, KeyCorp decreased their target price on Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $203.94.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total transaction of $5,066,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,652,696 shares in the company, valued at $413,555,306.40. The trade was a 1.21 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 29,066 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.89, for a total value of $5,374,012.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 272,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 179,324 shares of company stock valued at $30,153,353. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of GOOG opened at $154.38 on Friday. 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 firm has a market cap of $1.87 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.18, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. The business’s fifty day moving average is $160.96 and its 200-day moving average is $176.85.

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

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.54%. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.36%.

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.