New York State Common Retirement Fund Has $1.19 Billion Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

New York State Common Retirement Fund cut its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 5.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,698,563 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 457,320 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 1.7% of New York State Common Retirement Fund’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned approximately 0.06% of Alphabet worth $1,190,506,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,025,322,000 after buying an additional 22,100,902 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 16,993.2% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 16,062,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,483,898,000 after buying an additional 15,968,487 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Alphabet by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,178,470,000 after buying an additional 10,135,430 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in Alphabet by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,635,878,000 after buying an additional 10,037,685 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on GOOGL. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $195.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $175.00 to $177.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $201.68.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $185.06 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $172.90 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $173.01. The company has a market cap of $2.25 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. 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. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.36%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $1,837,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 261,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,844,050. This represents a 3.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total transaction of $5,992,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,527,392 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $466,000,536.96. The trade was a 1.27% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 215,843 shares of company stock worth $37,288,490 over the last ninety days. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.