Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Has $40.73 Million Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 229,600 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,258 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises approximately 0.9% of Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 21st biggest holding. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $40,729,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Optas LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Optas LLC now owns 101,046 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $17,925,000 after buying an additional 325 shares during the period. Massachusetts Wealth Management boosted its stake in Alphabet by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Wealth Management now owns 7,456 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,323,000 after acquiring an additional 210 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Strategies LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Eagle Strategies LLC now owns 11,043 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,959,000 after acquiring an additional 172 shares during the last quarter. Clear Creek Financial Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. Clear Creek Financial Management LLC now owns 17,993 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,192,000 after acquiring an additional 445 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ignite Planners LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Ignite Planners LLC now owns 14,506 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,697,000 after acquiring an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $237.49 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $256.70. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $226.97 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $189.81. The firm has a market cap of $2.87 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.29, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The firm had revenue of $96.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.67 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 8th were given a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 8.95%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. KeyCorp set a $265.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. UBS Group set a $255.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $241.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.41, for a total value of $7,910,825.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,402,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $584,699,785.79. The trade was a 1.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 103 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.13, for a total transaction of $25,042.39. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 17,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,202,258.92. This represents a 0.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 276,738 shares of company stock valued at $59,135,475 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet 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.