DNB Asset Management AS Has $1.14 Billion Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

DNB Asset Management AS cut its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 9.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,493,371 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 660,074 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 4.7% of DNB Asset Management AS’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. DNB Asset Management AS owned 0.05% of Alphabet worth $1,144,327,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Entropy Technologies LP boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 157.8% in the second quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 51,243 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,031,000 after buying an additional 31,365 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank lifted its position in Alphabet by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 17,657,100 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,111,711,000 after acquiring an additional 1,177,600 shares in the last quarter. Personal CFO Solutions LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Personal CFO Solutions LLC now owns 59,114 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,418,000 after purchasing an additional 1,963 shares during the period. Willis Investment Counsel increased its holdings in Alphabet by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Willis Investment Counsel now owns 50,678 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,931,000 after purchasing an additional 419 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ABN AMRO Bank N.V. bought a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth about $52,868,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on GOOGL. Citizens Jmp increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $250.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 19th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Loop Capital raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $260.00 to $320.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on Alphabet from $270.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $333.00 target price on Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $312.06.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $315.81 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.15, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $328.83. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $271.77 and its 200-day moving average is $221.67.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%.The business had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 8th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 8.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.41, for a total value of $7,910,825.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,402,119 shares in the company, valued at $584,699,785.79. The trade was a 1.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total transaction of $680,610.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 17,293 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,236,785. The trade was a 13.84% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 193,628 shares of company stock valued at $50,942,622. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.