Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Reduces Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lowered its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 3,110,583 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 131,773 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 2.0% of Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $588,833,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $47,025,322,000 after buying an additional 22,100,902 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $24,383,677,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in Alphabet by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 98,638,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $18,672,198,000 after buying an additional 7,574,417 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Alphabet by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,635,878,000 after buying an additional 10,037,685 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Alphabet by 17.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,178,470,000 after buying an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $170.87 on Friday. 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 company has a fifty day moving average of $158.42 and a two-hundred day moving average of $174.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.07 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total value of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. This represents a 2.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.90, for a total transaction of $5,066,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,652,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $413,555,306.40. This represents a 1.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 112,054 shares of company stock valued at $17,722,605 over the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their target price on Alphabet from $230.00 to $205.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.75.

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.