State of Michigan Retirement System Decreases Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

State of Michigan Retirement System reduced its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,360,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 15,800 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 1.3% of State of Michigan Retirement System’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest holding. State of Michigan Retirement System’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $249,499,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Partnership Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter worth $37,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on GOOG shares. Rosenblatt Securities cut shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $181.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. 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. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $182.86.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $166.38 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $121.46 and a 1-year high of $193.31. The company’s fifty day moving average is $176.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $164.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a current ratio of 2.08.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $84.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.22 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 26.70% and a return on equity of 30.49%. The firm’s revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.44 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 7.62 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

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.