Perpetual Ltd Lowers Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Perpetual Ltd trimmed its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 4.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 17,406 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 843 shares during the period. Perpetual Ltd’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,315,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. FMR LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 114,802,133 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,193,768,000 after buying an additional 5,655,022 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,334,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,573,125,000 after buying an additional 3,113,395 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position 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 valued at $1,052,349,000 after buying an additional 2,500,621 shares during the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund grew its position in Alphabet by 182.1% in the 3rd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 2,526,055 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $422,331,000 after buying an additional 1,630,701 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,424,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,578,793,000 after buying an additional 1,291,274 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $199.58 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $186.95 and a 200 day moving average price of $175.06. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $131.55 and a twelve month high of $203.84. The company has a market capitalization of $2.44 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.47, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.55 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total transaction of $232,950.47. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 23,515 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,007,191.15. The trade was a 5.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.36, for a total value of $3,990,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,084,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $369,672,512.16. The trade was a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 133,387 shares of company stock worth $24,368,654 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on GOOG. Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, October 11th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price objective on the stock. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Alphabet from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.56.

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.