Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Acquired by BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp

BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 58.2% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 977,591 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 359,669 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 1.1% of BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings, making the stock its 14th biggest position. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $179,310,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 19.7% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,815,986,000 after acquiring an additional 13,876,534 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,378,708,000. Capital International Investors increased its position in Alphabet by 9.3% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,355,724,000 after purchasing an additional 7,470,042 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 51.8% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,416,150 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $976,923,000 after buying an additional 2,190,795 shares during the period. Finally, Vima LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 178,253.1% in the 1st quarter. Vima LLC now owns 2,001,122 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $304,691,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $163.07 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $121.46 and a 52 week high of $193.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08. The company has a market cap of $2.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $165.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $167.46.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.44 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total value of $5,570,188.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,765,346. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total value of $5,570,188.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 312,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,765,346. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.47, for a total value of $125,126.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 30,650 shares in the company, valued at $5,623,355.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 202,667 shares of company stock valued at $33,964,256. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on GOOG. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $182.86.

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.