Asset Management One Co. Ltd. Buys 115,632 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 5.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,209,908 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 115,632 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 1.2% of Asset Management One Co. Ltd.'s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position. Asset Management One Co. Ltd.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $345,254,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $5,166,070,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 18,562.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,237,733,000 after acquiring an additional 14,246,573 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,551,533,000. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 57,098,042 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $10,873,751,000 after purchasing an additional 7,917,625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GQG Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 181,679.1% during the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 7,225,721 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,376,066,000 after purchasing an additional 7,221,746 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Needham & Company LLC lowered Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "cautious" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Westpark Capital restated a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, June 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $204.88.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock traded up $3.75 on Wednesday, hitting $171.49. The company had a trading volume of 23,586,982 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,698,115. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The company has a market cap of $2.08 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.12, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $166.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $176.24.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 9.36%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.33, for a total transaction of $104,537.09. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,303 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,377,014.99. This represents a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $430,917,877.76. The trade was a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 228,070 shares of company stock valued at $37,745,632 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.