New York State Teachers Retirement System Sells 267,197 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

New York State Teachers Retirement System reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,729,483 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 267,197 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 1.8% of New York State Teachers Retirement System’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $867,482,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 11.9% during the first quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 109,878 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $16,730,000 after purchasing an additional 11,646 shares during the period. Investment Partners LTD. lifted its position in Alphabet by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Investment Partners LTD. now owns 7,446 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,049,000 after purchasing an additional 410 shares during the period. Apexium Financial LP lifted its position in Alphabet by 335.9% during the fourth quarter. Apexium Financial LP now owns 53,823 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,586,000 after purchasing an additional 41,476 shares during the period. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 5.3% during the second quarter. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,126 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $390,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oak Ridge Investments LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 4.6% during the first quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 187,229 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $28,508,000 after acquiring an additional 8,201 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on GOOG shares. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Rosenblatt Securities lowered shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $182.86.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $167.43 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $121.46 and a 12 month high of $193.31. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The business has a 50-day moving average of $176.34 and a 200-day moving average of $164.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.07 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.68, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. Alphabet had a return on equity of 30.49% and a net margin of 26.70%. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.44 EPS. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 12.27%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.86, for a total value of $118,572.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,209,888.76. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.86, for a total value of $118,572.52. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,209,888.76. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan sold 34,257 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.60, for a total value of $5,570,188.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 312,210 shares in the company, valued at $50,765,346. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 179,065 shares of company stock worth $31,025,543. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by 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.