Public Sector Pension Investment Board Grows Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 43.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 2,180,700 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 656,805 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 2.5% of Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $397,215,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 497,874,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $75,144,172,000 after purchasing an additional 4,064,073 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Alphabet by 14.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 57,803,291 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,724,251,000 after purchasing an additional 7,275,757 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in Alphabet by 0.5% during the 2nd 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 purchasing an additional 238,403 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,178,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,310,925,000 after purchasing an additional 1,429,261 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.7% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 35,412,299 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,344,778,000 after purchasing an additional 597,756 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on GOOGL. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $222.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, September 16th. TD Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $205.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $201.14.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $167.06 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $162.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $167.28. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $120.21 and a twelve month high of $191.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 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.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.60 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.44 EPS. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 12.27%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.07, for a total value of $3,759,075.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,129,306 shares in the company, valued at approximately $355,743,153.42. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.07, for a total value of $3,759,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,129,306 shares in the company, valued at $355,743,153.42. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.84, for a total transaction of $230,804.28. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,927,257.72. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 217,592 shares of company stock valued at $35,922,911. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet 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.