Mawer Investment Management Ltd. Buys 977,850 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Mawer Investment Management Ltd. increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 18.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,154,741 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 977,850 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 4.3% of Mawer Investment Management Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. Mawer Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $937,121,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Partnership Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Equitec Proprietary Markets LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.67, for a total value of $113,668.94. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,880,764.28. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.74, for a total transaction of $4,201,650.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,227,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $415,941,874.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.67, for a total value of $113,668.94. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,880,764.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 145,488 shares of company stock worth $25,217,405. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the subject of several recent research reports. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $174.38.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOG traded down $0.01 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $187.29. The stock had a trading volume of 4,789,435 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,634,584. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $118.68 and a twelve month high of $193.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.15 and a quick ratio of 2.15. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $178.83 and its 200 day moving average is $158.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.31 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.74, a PEG ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.38. The firm had revenue of $80.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $78.75 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 25.90% and a return on equity of 29.52%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.17 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a — dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 12.27%.

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.