Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Buys 70,311 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS boosted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 6.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,151,411 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 70,311 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 1.0% of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $204,249,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. IFS Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 400.0% during the second quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the period. Robbins Farley boosted its position in Alphabet by 60.0% during the second quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 58.7% during the 2nd quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares during the period. Fairman Group LLC raised its position 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 worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $283.48, for a total value of $9,213,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,337,119 shares in the company, valued at $662,526,494.12. This represents a 1.37% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $291.80, for a total transaction of $32,681.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 18,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,253,567.20. This represents a 0.62% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 221,796 shares of company stock valued at $53,983,001 in the last three months. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on GOOG shares. Pivotal Research raised their target price on Alphabet from $300.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Scotiabank set a $336.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $310.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, HSBC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $335.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $324.81.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $276.98 on Friday. 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 50-day moving average price of $257.84 and a 200-day moving average price of $209.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.34 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $292.36.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.12 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

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.