Public Sector Pension Investment Board Buys 450,594 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 19.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,728,513 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 450,594 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.8% of Public Sector Pension Investment Board's portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest position. Public Sector Pension Investment Board's holdings in Alphabet were worth $421,937,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. AIA Group Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 13.3% in the 1st quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 190,116 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $29,400,000 after purchasing an additional 22,372 shares during the period. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors now owns 9,048 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,421,000 after purchasing an additional 256 shares during the period. Ballast Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.8% in the 1st quarter. Ballast Inc. now owns 9,339 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,444,000 after purchasing an additional 752 shares during the period. Meridian Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC now owns 148,860 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $23,020,000 after purchasing an additional 3,269 shares during the period. Finally, Maia Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. Maia Wealth LLC now owns 33,318 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $5,300,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Alphabet from $203.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Alphabet from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. UBS Group boosted their target price on Alphabet from $192.00 to $202.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Wedbush boosted their target price on Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $211.53.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.5%

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $203.90 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $2.47 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.01. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $184.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $173.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.16. Alphabet had a return on equity of 34.31% and a net margin of 31.12%. The firm had revenue of $96,428,000 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.60 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 owned 240,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,656,704. This trade represents a 5.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.23, for a total value of $6,377,475.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,494,892 shares in the company, valued at $489,572,657.16. This trade represents a 1.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 274,819 shares of company stock worth $49,796,547. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.

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