Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Acquires Shares of 2,344,411 Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 2,344,411 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $837,822,000. Alphabet accounts for about 2.5% of Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management now owns 275,943 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $86,596,000 after purchasing an additional 2,850 shares during the period. Heck Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 298.2% in the second quarter. Heck Capital Advisors LLC now owns 22,229 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,854,000 after acquiring an additional 16,647 shares in the last quarter. Violich Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Violich Capital Management Inc. now owns 340,776 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $106,936,000 after acquiring an additional 3,378 shares in the last quarter. Montchanin Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the first quarter valued at approximately $7,075,000. Finally, Sax Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 13.3% during the second quarter. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 30,489 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,773,000 after acquiring an additional 3,575 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.20, for a total value of $149,606.80. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 27,386 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,125,015.20. This trade represents a 1.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total value of $3,142,911.42. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 75,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,298,044.10. This represents a 10.68% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 451,925 shares of company stock worth $12,371,544 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $450.00 price target on Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, July 17th. Roth Capital increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $435.00 to $440.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Alphabet from $460.00 to $420.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $415.55.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google DeepMind is reportedly preparing to release Gemini 3.8 Flash as early as this week. Internal testing suggests the model narrows Google’s coding-performance gap with OpenAI and Anthropic, potentially improving Alphabet’s position in enterprise AI and software development. New Google AI Model Said to Narrow Gap on Coding Ability
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet-owned Waymo launched public robotaxi service in Denver, San Diego and Tampa, expanding its commercial operations to 14 U.S. cities. The rollout strengthens Alphabet’s long-term autonomous-driving opportunity as competition with Amazon’s Zoox and Tesla intensifies. Waymo accelerates robotaxi expansion
• Positive Sentiment: Google signed a 396-megawatt geothermal power agreement with Fervo Energy, supporting reliable, carbon-free electricity for data-center growth and its AI infrastructure strategy. Fervo signs geothermal power deal with Google
• Neutral Sentiment: Berkshire Hathaway made Alphabet its third-largest holding after reducing Bank of America exposure. The move provides a high-profile vote of confidence, but commentary questioning whether Alphabet is fully valued limits its immediate impact. Alphabet becomes Berkshire’s third-largest holding
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that Meta’s AI advertising products and OpenAI’s rapidly growing ad business could threaten Google Search’s advertising dominance and future ad growth. Competition threatens Google Search advertising
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet’s planned AI infrastructure spending—reportedly potentially reaching $205 billion this year—is raising concerns about depreciation, free cash flow and operating margins despite strong cloud and AI-driven revenue growth. Big Tech AI spending and depreciation concerns
• Negative Sentiment: EU regulators are examining Google’s proposed AI-search publisher opt-out, while a reported £260 million U.K. app-store settlement underscores continuing antitrust and regulatory exposure. EU regulators examine Google AI-search opt-out

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $332.03 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $347.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $340.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a current ratio of 2.72. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $206.96 and a 52 week high of $404.47. The firm has a market cap of $4.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.68, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.23.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $9.11 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.87 by $6.24. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. The company had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $116.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.31 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 24.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Investors of record on Monday, September 7th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.42%.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as “Other Bets.” Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company’s history.

Alphabet’s core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company’s ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.