New York State Teachers Retirement System Trims Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

New York State Teachers Retirement System cut its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,946,642 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 228,305 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 1.8% of New York State Teachers Retirement System’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $764,949,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wealth Group Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 1,582 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $299,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 50,132 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,490,000 after purchasing an additional 371 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $20,886,000 after purchasing an additional 4,110 shares during the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $154,716,000. Finally, Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,826,000 after buying an additional 506 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on GOOGL. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Alphabet from $225.00 to $192.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. UBS Group set a $195.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.95.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $179.08 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.17 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.00. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $168.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $173.87. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.54% and a net margin of 30.86%. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.36%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.52, for a total value of $5,801,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,559,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $456,991,919.84. This represents a 1.25% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $1,575,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 255,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,695,000. The trade was a 3.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 215,643 shares of company stock valued at $36,330,928. 11.64% 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.