Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Boosts Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 7.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 882,787 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 59,789 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $147,593,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 9.1% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,424,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,578,793,000 after buying an additional 1,291,274 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Alphabet by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,657,421 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,688,743,000 after purchasing an additional 636,008 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 12,327,458 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,261,103,000 after purchasing an additional 282,121 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Alphabet by 2.5% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,843,149,000 after purchasing an additional 264,962 shares during the period. Finally, National Pension Service lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 14.0% during the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 9,903,537 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,655,772,000 after purchasing an additional 1,218,671 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price 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, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 21,467 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.35, for a total value of $3,442,233.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 39,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,307,206.90. The trade was a 35.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.68, for a total transaction of $3,570,300.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,137,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $339,160,251.80. This represents a 1.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,673,866. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $166.57 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $169.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $171.86. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $129.40 and a twelve month high of $193.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The business’s revenue was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.55 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 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.