Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Has $422.33 Million Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund increased its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 182.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,526,055 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,630,701 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.0% of Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest position. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $422,331,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Cynosure Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 42.8% during the third quarter. Cynosure Group LLC now owns 3,861 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $646,000 after purchasing an additional 1,158 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its position in Alphabet by 6.5% during the third quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 385,951 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $64,527,000 after acquiring an additional 23,538 shares in the last quarter. Principal Street Partners LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 97.7% during the third quarter. Principal Street Partners LLC now owns 27,248 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,997,000 after acquiring an additional 13,464 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group raised its position in Alphabet by 6.4% during the third quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 29,921 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,002,000 after acquiring an additional 1,805 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covington Investment Advisors Inc. raised its position in Alphabet by 1.0% during the third quarter. Covington Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 222,275 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $37,162,000 after acquiring an additional 2,150 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GOOG. Scotiabank began coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Friday, October 11th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price objective on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $170.62 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $129.40 and a 1 year high of $193.31. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $169.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $171.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.09 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The business had revenue of $88.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.55 earnings per share. Alphabet’s revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.68, for a total transaction of $3,570,300.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,137,385 shares in the company, valued at $339,160,251.80. The trade was a 1.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 21,467 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.35, for a total transaction of $3,442,233.45. Following the sale, the insider now owns 39,334 shares in the company, valued at $6,307,206.90. This represents a 35.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 206,795 shares of company stock worth $34,673,866 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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.