Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Acquired by Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky

Key Points

• Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky increased its Alphabet stake by 6.9% in the first quarter, buying 79,930 additional shares to bring its total to 1,233,629 shares valued at about $354.7 million.
• Alphabet reported strong quarterly results, posting EPS of $9.11 versus estimates of $2.64 and revenue of $119.8 billion, both ahead of expectations. Recent updates also pointed to robust growth in Google Cloud and YouTube advertising.
• Wall Street remains largely bullish on the stock, with analysts assigning Alphabet a Moderate Buy rating on average and a consensus price target of $414.54. The company also recently raised its quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share.

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky boosted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 6.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,233,629 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 79,930 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 2.8% of Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky's investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky's holdings in Alphabet were worth $354,743,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $165,567,398,000 after acquiring an additional 12,531,695 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1.8% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $40,524,841,000 after purchasing an additional 4,008,374 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 146,193,037 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $45,625,595,000 after purchasing an additional 2,666,676 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $30,534,239,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in Alphabet by 4.9% during the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 69,108,183 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $21,630,861,000 after purchasing an additional 3,218,852 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet beat Q2 earnings and revenue estimates by a wide margin, signaling strong underlying business momentum. Alphabet (GOOGL) Beats Q2 Earnings and Revenue Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud’s 82% growth suggests Alphabet’s AI spending is translating into faster cloud demand and improving monetization. Google quarterly cloud revenue growth beats expectations
• Positive Sentiment: YouTube ad revenue growth and strength across search and advertising add evidence that core businesses are still healthy. YouTube Ad Revenue Rises 13% In Q2 To Surpass $11 Billion, Helping To Drive Strong Report By Parent Alphabet

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $425.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Dbs Bank lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $460.00 in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Freedom Capital lowered shares of Alphabet from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $438.00 target price (up from $416.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $414.54.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.5%

Alphabet stock opened at $342.09 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $187.82 and a 52-week high of $408.61. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.09, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $366.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $338.86.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $6.47. The company had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th were issued a $0.22 dividend. This is a positive change from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is currently 6.71%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total transaction of $2,077,531.25. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $351.28, for a total value of $39,343.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 18,833 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,615,656.24. The trade was a 0.59% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 159,415 shares of company stock worth $7,672,279 over the last quarter. Insiders own 11.61% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Profile

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.

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