24,232,325 Shares in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Purchased by Norges Bank

Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 24,232,325 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,298,572,000. Alphabet makes up about 0.5% of Norges Bank’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,901,000 after acquiring an additional 6,410 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp raised its stake in Alphabet by 41.8% during the first quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 26,935 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,208,000 after purchasing an additional 7,934 shares during the period. TradeLink Capital LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at about $938,000. Hoxton Planning & Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $671,000. Finally, Menard Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 29.4% in the 1st quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC now owns 4,289 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $709,000 after buying an additional 974 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $320.28 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.86 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $328.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $268.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $218.44.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 36.08%. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.12 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.06, for a total transaction of $168,036.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 4,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,264,750.96. The trade was a 11.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $296.64, for a total transaction of $9,640,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,304,619 shares in the company, valued at $683,642,180.16. The trade was a 1.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 227,850 shares of company stock worth $58,874,814 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $330.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $330.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday. Wolfe Research raised their price objective on Alphabet from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities set a $279.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $304.62.

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.