Employees Retirement System of Texas Buys 29,930 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Employees Retirement System of Texas boosted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 6.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 494,098 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 29,930 shares during the quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $87,075,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $20,886,000 after buying an additional 4,110 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,826,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. Smart Money Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 9.4% during the 1st quarter. Smart Money Group LLC now owns 6,181 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $956,000 after purchasing an additional 532 shares during the last quarter. United Bank increased its position in Alphabet by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 45,084 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,972,000 after purchasing an additional 910 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Integrated Investment Consultants LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 16.4% in the 1st quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 27,114 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,193,000 after purchasing an additional 3,822 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on GOOGL shares. Melius Research boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $255.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Alphabet from $260.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp lifted their price target on Alphabet from $250.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on Alphabet from $260.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have given a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $312.65.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $319.50, for a total transaction of $10,383,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,272,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $725,942,020.50. This represents a 1.41% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.06, for a total transaction of $168,036.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 4,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,264,750.96. This trade represents a 11.73% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 226,128 shares of company stock worth $61,326,372 in the last quarter. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $321.27 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $276.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $224.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $328.83. The company has a market capitalization of $3.88 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

Alphabet Company 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.