Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL is DnB Asset Management AS's 4th Largest Position

Key Points

• DnB Asset Management AS has reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. by 10% and now holds 7,153,445 shares, making it the 4th largest position in its portfolio, valued at approximately $1.1 billion.
• Several institutional investors are increasing their holdings in Alphabet, with notable stakes such as Nuveen LLC investing over $4.3 billion and GAMMA Investing LLC increasing its stake by 16,993.2% in Q1.
• Alphabet recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, representing an annualized yield of 0.4%, and is set to be paid on September 15th to investors of record on September 8th.

DnB Asset Management AS trimmed its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 10.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,153,445 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 798,212 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 5.1% of DnB Asset Management AS's portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. DnB Asset Management AS owned about 0.06% of Alphabet worth $1,106,209,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $4,317,606,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,483,898,000 after purchasing an additional 15,968,487 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 509,826,331 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $78,839,544,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307,345 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 307.6% during the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,302,644 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,593,201,000 after purchasing an additional 7,774,811 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $1,375,509,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total transaction of $4,637,754.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 42,999 shares in the company, valued at $8,371,905.30. This trade represents a 35.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 243,400 shares in the company, valued at $45,213,984. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 222,210 shares of company stock valued at $41,742,155 in the last 90 days. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have issued reports on GOOGL. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $191.00 to $224.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $195.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Guggenheim increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $235.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Alphabet from $192.00 to $202.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have issued a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $221.31.

Alphabet Stock Up 9.1%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $230.66 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.79 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.56, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The company's fifty day moving average price is $193.49 and its 200-day moving average price is $174.80. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $231.31.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.60 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.95%.

Alphabet Company 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.

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