Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Decreases Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio reduced its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,056,368 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 74,637 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.2% of Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $364,779,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $64,299,725,000 after buying an additional 9,687,855 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $23,963,208,000 after buying an additional 135,064,454 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,971,861,000 after buying an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.4% in the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 21,345,784 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,334,852,000 after buying an additional 1,098,996 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,380,073 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,183,979,000 after buying an additional 440,526 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the topic of several recent research reports. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Roth Capital reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $270.00 target price (up previously from $235.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $230.35.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total transaction of $680,610.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 17,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,236,785. This represents a 13.84% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $229.73, for a total transaction of $7,466,225.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,429,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $558,219,089.16. This trade represents a 1.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 258,088 shares of company stock worth $52,405,304. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.5%

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $246.57 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $256.70. The company has a 50-day moving average of $215.38 and a 200-day moving average of $183.72. 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 company has a market cap of $2.98 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 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 8.95%.

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.