Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Purchases 68,780 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 10.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 725,853 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 68,780 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $102,295,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Tandem Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. HWG Holdings LP bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Equitec Proprietary Markets LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Buck Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total value of $3,291,525.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,377,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $347,832,416.39. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total value of $3,291,525.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,377,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $347,832,416.39. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 660 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 27,920 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,009,032.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 251,339 shares of company stock valued at $36,377,482 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of GOOG traded down $1.74 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $155.72. The stock had a trading volume of 21,479,881 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,369,122. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $147.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $141.93. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $103.27 and a twelve month high of $161.70. The firm has a market cap of $1.94 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 27.22% and a net margin of 24.01%. The firm had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $85.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.05 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Susquehanna raised their price objective on Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Raymond James raised their price objective on Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $159.86.

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.