MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. Raises Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Key Points

• MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. by 7.1%, now holding nearly 1.95 million shares valued at approximately $304.2 million.
• CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock, reflecting a 1.30% decrease in his total ownership, while director Kavitark Ram Shriram decreased his ownership by 5.87% after selling 15,000 shares.
• Alphabet announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, resulting in an annualized yield of 0.4%, with investors set to receive this payment on September 15th.

MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 7.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,947,263 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 128,735 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 0.7% of MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd.'s holdings, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $304,219,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at about $2,622,943,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position 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 last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 2.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $64,299,725,000 after acquiring an additional 9,687,855 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 9,243,959 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $786,942,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.92, for a total transaction of $6,497,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,462,392 shares in the company, valued at $492,281,408.64. The trade was a 1.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 15,000 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $2,786,400.00. Following the sale, the director owned 240,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $44,656,704. This trade represents a 5.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 222,210 shares of company stock valued at $41,742,155. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Lake Street Capital restated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. BNP Paribas downgraded Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $210.00 price objective (up from $185.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $186.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $227.56.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.7%

GOOG stock opened at $232.66 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.81 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $232.77. The company's 50-day moving average price is $195.51 and its 200 day moving average price is $176.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%.The business had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $93.67 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business 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 $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 8.95%.

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.

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