Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. Buys 63,927 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,702,711 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 63,927 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 1.5% of Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $302,276,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $64,299,725,000 after acquiring an additional 9,687,855 shares during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 580,897.4% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $23,963,208,000 after purchasing an additional 135,064,454 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 9.9% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG grew its holdings in Alphabet by 5.4% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 21,345,784 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,334,852,000 after purchasing an additional 1,098,996 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,380,073 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,183,979,000 after buying an additional 440,526 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on GOOG. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $340.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. HSBC restated a “buy” rating and set a $335.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $300.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on Alphabet from $260.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $324.81.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 $4,236,785. The trade was a 13.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 42,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. This trade represents a 29.30% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 189,896 shares of company stock worth $44,892,175. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $285.34 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $291.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.45 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $250.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $204.23.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.12 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.28%.

About Alphabet

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.