Employees Retirement System of Texas Has $87.08 Million Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Employees Retirement System of Texas grew its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 6.4% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 494,098 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 29,930 shares during the period. Employees Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $87,075,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter valued at $31,000. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 85.7% in the 1st quarter. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC now owns 195 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 36.4% during the 2nd quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. S&T Bank PA increased its holdings in Alphabet by 40.2% during the 2nd quarter. S&T Bank PA now owns 345 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 77.6% in the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 348 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on GOOGL. Moffett Nathanson lifted their target price on Alphabet from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. BNP Paribas Exane began coverage on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, November 24th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $355.00 price objective on the stock. CICC Research upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $240.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $260.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Roth Capital boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have assigned a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $312.65.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $321.27 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.88 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $328.83. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $276.15 and a 200 day simple moving average of $224.51.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 8.28%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 954 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.00, for a total transaction of $302,418.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 11,740 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,721,580. This represents a 7.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.66, for a total transaction of $32,401.32. Following the transaction, the director owned 18,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,750,916.64. This represents a 0.56% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 226,128 shares of company stock valued at $61,326,372. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

About Alphabet

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.