Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Bought by Daiwa Securities Group Inc.

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,085,375 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 41,752 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $192,534,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. IFS Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 400.0% during the 2nd quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the period. Robbins Farley raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 60.0% in the second quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 58.7% in the second quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. University of Illinois Foundation acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth $31,000. Finally, Fairman Group LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 121.3% during the 2nd quarter. Fairman Group LLC now owns 177 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Raymond James Financial set a $275.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Loop Capital upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Rosenblatt Securities set a $279.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Pivotal Research restated a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 price objective (up from $350.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday. Finally, DA Davidson set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $310.54.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.4%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $314.45 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $278.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $226.67. The stock has a market cap of $3.79 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.01, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.07. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $328.67.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.12 earnings per share. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 8.28%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 954 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.00, for a total transaction of $302,418.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 11,740 shares in the company, valued at $3,721,580. This trade represents a 7.52% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.06, for a total value of $168,036.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 4,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,264,750.96. This represents a 11.73% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 228,906 shares of company stock valued at $62,127,158 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.