Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd Purchases 38,151 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 892,887 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 38,151 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 1.7% of Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest position. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $169,024,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Bennett Selby Investments LP lifted its stake in Alphabet by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Bennett Selby Investments LP now owns 1,354 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $256,000 after buying an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,845 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,864,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Denver PWM LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 25.4% in the 3rd quarter. Denver PWM LLC now owns 281 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. Ignite Planners LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Ignite Planners LLC now owns 15,078 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,892,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fermata Advisors LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC now owns 7,433 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,407,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. DZ Bank lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $204.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Loop Capital lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.62.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $185.23 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.84. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $192.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $175.17. The stock has a market cap of $2.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.01, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.99. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $130.66 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total value of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,471,620.22. This represents a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 89,529 shares of company stock worth $16,600,078 in the last quarter. 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.