California State Teachers Retirement System Decreases Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

California State Teachers Retirement System reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 3.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,818,391 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 290,539 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 1.7% of California State Teachers Retirement System's investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest position. California State Teachers Retirement System owned approximately 0.06% of Alphabet worth $1,488,934,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. LSV Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Scotiabank decreased their target price on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 21st. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $203.94.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total value of $5,153,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,717,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $430,917,877.76. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,340 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total value of $270,787.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 148,053 shares of company stock valued at $25,339,647 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG stock traded up $1.90 during trading on Thursday, hitting $162.79. The company had a trading volume of 21,825,033 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,213,555. The stock's 50-day moving average is $162.85 and its two-hundred day moving average is $177.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $208.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $90.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. The business's revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

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.