Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Has $2.44 Billion Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 12,813,530 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 30,680 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up 1.6% of Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 9th biggest holding. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned approximately 0.10% of Alphabet worth $2,440,209,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. grew its position in Alphabet by 80.5% during the 4th quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 1,251,611 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $238,370,000 after acquiring an additional 558,040 shares during the last quarter. Telligent Fund LP acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,524,000. RNC Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC now owns 80,687 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,366,000 after purchasing an additional 5,570 shares during the last quarter. Tandem Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $603,000. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 18,770.1% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 1,164,095 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $221,690,000 after buying an additional 1,157,926 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total transaction of $3,975,075.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,061,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $364,259,266.02. The trade was a 1.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total value of $232,950.47. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,007,191.15. The trade was a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 89,529 shares of company stock worth $16,600,078 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $188.20 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $131.55 and a 12-month high of $208.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a market cap of $2.30 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.00. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $193.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $176.14.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on GOOG shares. Citizens Jmp lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Pivotal Research increased their price target on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.13.

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.