Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Raises Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 5.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 541,662 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 28,256 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises approximately 1.5% of Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings, making the stock its 5th largest position. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $98,664,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 497,874,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $75,144,172,000 after acquiring an additional 4,064,073 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $15,441,917,000. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 14.4% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,724,251,000 after purchasing an additional 7,275,757 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 49,472,478 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,011,412,000 after buying an additional 238,403 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,178,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,310,925,000 after buying an additional 1,429,261 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on GOOGL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $208.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Alphabet from $205.00 to $190.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $240.00 target price on the stock. Piper Sandler cut their price target on Alphabet from $206.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and issued a $206.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $201.08.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.63, for a total transaction of $3,614,175.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,114,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $339,713,977.55. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.63, for a total transaction of $3,614,175.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,114,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $339,713,977.55. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total transaction of $600,175.38. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,655.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 180,167 shares of company stock worth $29,762,606 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $163.59 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $120.21 and a 12 month high of $191.75. The firm has a market cap of $2.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $164.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $165.32.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.60 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.44 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 12.27%.

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.