Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Bought by Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.2% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,356,193 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,894 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 2.0% of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $389,987,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $30,534,239,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased its stake in Alphabet by 855.3% during the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 14,525,280 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,546,413,000 after acquiring an additional 13,004,828 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $165,567,398,000 after purchasing an additional 12,531,695 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 28.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,910,542,000 after purchasing an additional 11,605,785 shares during the period. Finally, Diamant Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 28,950.0% in the 1st quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,291,926 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,671,986,000 after purchasing an additional 9,259,940 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet reportedly developed a new AI server chip, “Frozen v2,” to make Gemini run more efficiently, which could improve margins and help ease compute constraints for Google Cloud. Reuters: Google plans new chip to run Gemini models more efficiently
• Positive Sentiment: Google released new Gemini models, including cheaper and more efficient versions, signaling continued AI product momentum ahead of earnings. TechCrunch: Google releases three new Gemini models
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and market commentary remain constructive on Alphabet going into Q2 results, with expectations that Search and Google Cloud can still deliver strong growth. Yahoo Finance: Alphabet Q2 Earnings Preview
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s earnings report on Wednesday is expected to be a major market test for AI spending, cloud growth, and capital expenditure discipline. Invezz: What to expect from Alphabet’s Q2 earnings
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet is also facing a cluster of securities-fraud investigation headlines, though these are largely legal overhangs at this stage rather than new operational news. PR Newswire: Securities fraud investigation continues
• Negative Sentiment: Reuters reported that a flagship Gemini model remains delayed, adding to investor worries that heavy AI spending may not translate into results quickly enough. Reuters: Alphabet’s Gemini delay, spending worries loom over earnings

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $351.28, for a total value of $39,343.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 18,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,615,656.24. This represents a 0.59% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total transaction of $2,077,531.25. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 159,415 shares of company stock worth $7,672,279 over the last three months. Insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GOOGL. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on Alphabet from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $415.00 price target (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. President Capital lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $375.00 to $465.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $445.00 price objective (up from $425.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Finally, CICC Research increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $388.00 to $407.91 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $414.54.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.4%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $347.15 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $187.46 and a 52-week high of $408.61. The company has a 50 day moving average of $367.35 and a two-hundred day moving average of $338.65. The company has a market capitalization of $4.21 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.24.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.64 by $2.47. The business had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 6.71%.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.