Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Acquired by Public Sector Pension Investment Board

Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 94.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 159,321 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 77,530 shares during the quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $29,223,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in Alphabet by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,716,562 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,355,724,000 after acquiring an additional 7,470,042 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 19.7% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 84,171,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,815,986,000 after purchasing an additional 13,876,534 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in Alphabet by 2.2% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 45,731,826 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,963,128,000 after buying an additional 979,083 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in Alphabet by 2.0% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 35,558,778 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,414,179,000 after buying an additional 684,968 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 28,558,000 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,024,679,000 after buying an additional 813,428 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on GOOG shares. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Rosenblatt Securities cut shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 target price for the company. in a report on Friday, June 28th. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, DA Davidson upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $182.86.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $164.64 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.03 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $121.46 and a fifty-two week high of $193.31. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $166.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $167.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The business had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.44 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current 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 paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 12.27%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total value of $600,175.38. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 9 shares in the company, valued at $1,655.91. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 3,262 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.99, for a total value of $600,175.38. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 9 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,655.91. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.74, for a total transaction of $4,201,650.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,227,385 shares in the company, valued at $415,941,874.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 202,667 shares of company stock worth $33,964,256 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is currently 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.