State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System Decreases Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System reduced its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,587,366 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 131,514 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 1.4% of State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $813,753,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. IFS Advisors LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 400.0% in the second quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the period. Robbins Farley boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 60.0% in the 2nd quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 58.7% in the 2nd quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. University of Illinois Foundation acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Fairman Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 121.3% during the second quarter. Fairman Group LLC now owns 177 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GOOG. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Rosenblatt Securities set a $279.00 price target on Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on Alphabet from $260.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Wolfe Research upped their price objective on Alphabet from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Pivotal Research increased their target price on Alphabet from $300.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $304.62.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $320.28 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $267.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $217.73. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a market capitalization of $3.86 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.59, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $328.67.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.06, for a total transaction of $168,036.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 4,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,264,750.96. This trade represents a 11.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $296.64, for a total transaction of $9,640,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,304,619 shares in the company, valued at approximately $683,642,180.16. The trade was a 1.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 227,850 shares of company stock valued at $58,874,814 in the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.