Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is National Pension Service's 9th Largest Position

Key Points

• The National Pension Service has increased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. by 2.7% during the 1st quarter, owning approximately $1.55 billion worth, making it the 9th largest position in the fund.
• Insider activity includes significant stock sales by Director Kavitark Ram Shriram and CEO Sundar Pichai, with a total of 274,219 shares sold by insiders over the last three months.
• Alphabet reported better-than-expected earnings for the latest quarter, with $2.31 earnings per share and revenue of $96.43 billion, indicating a 13.8% year-over-year increase.

National Pension Service lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 2.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,892,036 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 259,820 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 1.5% of National Pension Service's investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest holding. National Pension Service owned approximately 0.08% of Alphabet worth $1,545,433,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $22,901,000 after acquiring an additional 6,410 shares during the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 506,535 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $96,465,000 after purchasing an additional 20,855 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. CreativeOne Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 16.6% during the fourth quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 22,487 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $4,282,000 after purchasing an additional 3,199 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rench Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Rench Wealth Management Inc. now owns 55,288 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $10,529,000 after purchasing an additional 1,648 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.79, for a total transaction of $122,274.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 6,316 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,287,137.64. This trade represents a 8.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 15,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total value of $2,786,400.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 240,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at $44,656,704. This represents a 5.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 274,819 shares of company stock valued at $49,796,547 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOG traded up $1.09 during trading on Friday, hitting $204.91. 20,587,912 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 23,993,691. The company has a market capitalization of $2.48 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $184.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $174.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $93.67 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.95%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GOOG. Roth Capital reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Tigress Financial reaffirmed a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $171.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $235.00 target price (up previously from $220.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $215.19.

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.