Public Sector Pension Investment Board Buys 96,800 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 60.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 256,121 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 96,800 shares during the quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $42,821,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Quent Capital LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 32,706 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,980,000 after purchasing an additional 1,798 shares in the last quarter. Beck Bode LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 23.5% during the first quarter. Beck Bode LLC now owns 63,067 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,603,000 after buying an additional 12,021 shares during the last quarter. Redwood Grove Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.1% during the first quarter. Redwood Grove Capital LLC now owns 102,400 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,591,000 after acquiring an additional 5,900 shares in the last quarter. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 56.1% in the 1st quarter. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,083 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $469,000 after acquiring an additional 1,108 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Farallon Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 6.4% in the 1st quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 3,337,950 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $508,236,000 after acquiring an additional 199,410 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.68, for a total transaction of $3,570,300.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,137,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $339,160,251.80. The trade was a 1.04 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 682 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.44, for a total value of $109,420.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 32,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,136,807.48. The trade was a 2.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 206,795 shares of company stock valued at $34,673,866 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on GOOG shares. Seaport Res Ptn raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. UBS Group upped their price target on Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. DA Davidson raised shares of Alphabet to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Pivotal Research increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three 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 a consensus price target of $200.56.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $170.82 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $169.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $171.85. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $129.40 and a 12 month high of $193.31. The company has a market cap of $2.09 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.66, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.55 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 10.61%.

Alphabet Company 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.