Employees Retirement System of Texas Sells 54,788 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Employees Retirement System of Texas reduced its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 3.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,436,271 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 54,788 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 2.3% of Employees Retirement System of Texas' investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Employees Retirement System of Texas' holdings in Alphabet were worth $273,523,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. LSV Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, Noble Wealth Management PBC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.3%

Alphabet stock traded down $0.60 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $173.38. 24,106,636 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,150,784. The business has a fifty day moving average of $160.72 and a 200 day moving average of $176.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The firm has a market cap of $2.10 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.54, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The company had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Alphabet's revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.89 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.56, for a total transaction of $5,153,200.00. Following the transaction, 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,374 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total value of $238,347.78. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,606,213.28. The trade was a 8.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 164,654 shares of company stock valued at $26,793,380. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on GOOG. Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Needham & Company LLC cut Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "cautious" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Benchmark reaffirmed a "negative" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Scotiabank cut their target price on Alphabet from $232.00 to $200.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and five have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $203.94.

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.