Swiss National Bank Has $2.66 Billion Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Swiss National Bank boosted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 6.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 14,976,100 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 928,800 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.6% of Swiss National Bank’s holdings, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Swiss National Bank owned about 0.12% of Alphabet worth $2,656,610,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. IFS Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 400.0% in the second quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Robbins Farley lifted its position in Alphabet by 60.0% during the 2nd quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. WestEnd Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 58.7% in the 2nd 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 last quarter. Fairman Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 121.3% in the 2nd quarter. Fairman Group LLC now owns 177 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter worth approximately $32,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG opened at $289.98 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.50 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.60, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $306.89. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $261.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $212.97.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.08% and a net margin of 32.23%.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 firm earned $2.12 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $285.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Loop Capital raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $330.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Wolfe Research lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities set a $279.00 target price on Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $324.81.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $288.26, for a total transaction of $800,786.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 11,739 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,383,884.14. This represents a 19.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.48, for a total transaction of $9,213,100.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,337,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $662,526,494.12. The trade was a 1.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 195,452 shares of company stock valued at $49,255,209 in the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.