New York State Teachers Retirement System Cuts Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

New York State Teachers Retirement System lessened its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.0% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 4,731,986 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,771 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 2.8% of New York State Teachers Retirement System’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,360,730,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $165,567,398,000 after buying an additional 12,531,695 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,524,841,000 after acquiring an additional 4,008,374 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 146,193,037 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,625,595,000 after acquiring an additional 2,666,676 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,534,239,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 69,108,183 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $21,630,861,000 after acquiring an additional 3,218,852 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Bank of America boosted their target price on Alphabet from $370.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $420.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Dbs Bank lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $460.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Rothschild & Co Redburn boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 price objective (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $413.92.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOGL traded down $1.71 during trading on Friday, hitting $357.18. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 18,122,822 shares, compared to its average volume of 32,870,564. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $372.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $336.44. The firm has a market cap of $4.33 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.24. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $176.48 and a 52 week high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The company had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $106.98 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th were issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 8th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 6.71%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total transaction of $2,077,531.25. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total value of $387,061.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 1,481 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $545,941.03. This trade represents a 41.49% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 160,465 shares of company stock valued at $8,020,511 in the last quarter. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: KeyCorp raised its price target on Alphabet to $445 from $425 and kept an overweight rating, reinforcing the view that the stock still has meaningful upside from current levels.
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple upbeat articles highlighted Alphabet as a leading AI and cloud beneficiary, with commentary pointing to strong distribution through Search, Android, YouTube, Google Cloud, and chips as reasons it could monetize AI better than peers.
• Positive Sentiment: New coverage argued Alphabet looks undervalued after a big run over the past year, while other pieces said the company remains one of the most attractive megacap tech names on a risk/reward basis.
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks and other market commentators continued to include GOOGL among cloud and internet stocks positioned to benefit from AI-driven data center spending and digital demand growth.
• Positive Sentiment: Business and tech commentary also pointed to product and platform strengths, including Google Search setting records during the World Cup and Waymo planning more driverless-car expansion, which support the long-term growth narrative.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet said it will begin disclosing which ads are generated with AI, a transparency move that may help trust and compliance but is unlikely to materially change near-term earnings.
• Neutral Sentiment: Britain moved to regulate Google as a critical cloud supplier to protect financial stability; the change adds oversight, but it also underscores the importance of Google Cloud rather than signaling a fundamental business setback.
• Neutral Sentiment: Reuters reported that Google is appealing an Indian ads-related trademark ruling, a legal issue that could create some noise but does not yet appear to be a major stock-moving event.
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent short-interest data was effectively flat at zero shares reported, offering little actionable signal for traders.
• Negative Sentiment: One Reuters-linked report said Google and OpenAI provided AI services to Singapore-based subsidiaries of Chinese groups on the Pentagon blacklist, which could raise regulatory scrutiny and geopolitical concerns.
• Negative Sentiment: Technical commentary noted Alphabet is testing a key resistance zone after a recovery, suggesting the stock may need a fresh catalyst to extend its move higher.

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.