Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd Sells 29,880 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd trimmed its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 13.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 197,794 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 29,880 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 0.8% of Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $33,069,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 9.1% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,424,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,578,793,000 after acquiring an additional 1,291,274 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 4.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,657,421 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,688,743,000 after buying an additional 636,008 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 12,327,458 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,261,103,000 after buying an additional 282,121 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 2.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,843,149,000 after acquiring an additional 264,962 shares during the period. Finally, National Pension Service raised its holdings in Alphabet by 14.0% during the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 9,903,537 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,655,772,000 after acquiring an additional 1,218,671 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Pivotal Research lifted their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Alphabet from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $200.56.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total transaction of $109,420.08. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 32,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,136,807.48. The trade was a 2.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total value of $3,975,075.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,061,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $364,259,266.02. The trade was a 1.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,673,866. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $169.43 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.07 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.04. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $169.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $171.85. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $129.40 and a one year high of $193.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.55 earnings per share. Alphabet’s revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

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.