B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG Acquires New Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 310,088 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $51,832,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,378,708,000. Capital International Investors increased its stake in Alphabet by 9.3% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,355,724,000 after purchasing an additional 7,470,042 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Alphabet by 65.9% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 6,294,332 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,052,349,000 after purchasing an additional 2,500,621 shares during the period. Vima LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 178,253.1% in the 1st quarter. Vima LLC now owns 2,001,122 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $304,691,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000,000 shares during the period. Finally, Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 6,610.0% in the 2nd quarter. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,769,160 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $301,312,000 after purchasing an additional 1,742,794 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. DA Davidson upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Pivotal Research lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.7 %

Alphabet stock opened at $176.80 on Tuesday. 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 business’s fifty day simple moving average is $167.56 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $171.80. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $129.40 and a 12 month high of $193.31. The company has a market capitalization of $2.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.55 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 441 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.06, for a total transaction of $75,437.46. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 16,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,820,779.40. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.41, for a total value of $1,862,805.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 319,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,765,168.06. This trade represents a 3.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 206,795 shares of company stock worth $34,471,141 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.