Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Position Boosted by National Pension Service

National Pension Service raised its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 14.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,282,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,450,659 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 1.8% of National Pension Service’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. National Pension Service owned 0.09% of Alphabet worth $1,871,187,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 497,874,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $75,144,172,000 after buying an additional 4,064,073 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,724,251,000 after buying an additional 7,275,757 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in Alphabet by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 49,472,478 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,011,412,000 after purchasing an additional 238,403 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.7% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 35,412,299 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,344,778,000 after acquiring an additional 597,756 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 23,465,190 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,274,184,000 after acquiring an additional 418,204 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the sale, the director now owns 16,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. The trade was a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,835 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.53, for a total transaction of $429,587.55. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,182 shares in the company, valued at $4,421,948.46. This trade represents a 8.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,471,141 in the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GOOGL. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $208.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective (up from $200.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.90.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $172.49 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a market cap of $2.11 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.88, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.03. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $165.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $170.13. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $127.90 and a 12-month high of $191.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.55 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.61%.

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.