Teacher Retirement System of Texas Buys 262,640 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 776.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 296,487 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 262,640 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Alphabet were worth $56,463,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of GOOG. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,843,149,000 after buying an additional 264,962 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 7.2% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 13,526 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,261,000 after buying an additional 909 shares during the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% during the third quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 210,657 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $35,220,000 after buying an additional 2,151 shares during the last quarter. Cornerstone Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% during the third quarter. Cornerstone Advisors LLC now owns 591,000 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $98,809,000 after buying an additional 3,600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 26.5% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 821,450 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $137,338,000 after buying an additional 172,077 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GOOG. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Citizens Jmp lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.13.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total transaction of $3,245,761.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 1,449,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $265,914,995.28. The trade was a 1.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,368 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.55, for a total transaction of $262,040.40. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,961,445.55. This represents a 6.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 93,048 shares of company stock valued at $17,374,274 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $165.05 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $184.91 and its 200-day moving average is $177.93. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $148.01 and a 12-month high of $208.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a market cap of $2.01 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. Sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.94%.

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.