CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co Has $1.22 Billion Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,473,006 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 50,612 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 2.1% of CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co owned about 0.05% of Alphabet worth $1,224,796,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. GKV Capital Management Co. Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $5,454,000. Foster Dykema Cabot & Partners LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Foster Dykema Cabot & Partners LLC now owns 167,481 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,704,000 after acquiring an additional 8,982 shares during the period. Capital Square LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 22.5% in the 4th quarter. Capital Square LLC now owns 4,695 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $940,000 after acquiring an additional 861 shares in the last quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 5,576.2% in the 4th quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 1,751,573 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $331,573,000 after acquiring an additional 1,720,715 shares during the period. Finally, Demars Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 18,830.0% during the 4th quarter. Demars Financial Group LLC now owns 533,826 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $101,053,000 after purchasing an additional 531,006 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $151.08 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The firm has a market cap of $1.84 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $165.14 and its 200-day moving average is $175.84. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released 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%. Equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the subject of several research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $159.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Wolfe Research upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $205.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.74.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.16, for a total transaction of $5,075,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,685,196 shares in the company, valued at approximately $419,320,207.36. The trade was a 1.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This represents a 6.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 148,163 shares of company stock valued at $25,361,647 in the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.