Norges Bank Invests $24.38 Billion in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 128,809,703 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $24,383,677,000. Alphabet accounts for 3.2% of Norges Bank’s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest holding.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $26,347,000. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd now owns 128,878 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $24,397,000 after buying an additional 3,655 shares during the period. Howe & Rusling Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Howe & Rusling Inc. now owns 5,355 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,014,000 after buying an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $7,876,000. Finally, NEOS Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 25.9% in the 4th quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 474,768 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $89,874,000 after acquiring an additional 97,524 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $202.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. DZ Bank lowered shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $198.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $208.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Wedbush increased their price target on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.13.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total value of $284,700.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 21,824 shares in the company, valued at $4,142,195.20. The trade was a 6.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. The trade was a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 119,797 shares of company stock valued at $21,089,470. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $145.60 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.77 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.09, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $145.38 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $175.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $176.81.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 9.94%.

About Alphabet

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.