Arizona State Retirement System Sells 53,127 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Arizona State Retirement System trimmed its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,646,513 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 53,127 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 2.8% of Arizona State Retirement System’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $515,359,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. PMV Capital Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $53,000. Kentucky Trust Co grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 142.9% during the fourth quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. iSAM Funds UK Ltd bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $53,000. Finally, Sellwood Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $63,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet briefly surpassed NVIDIA in market value, highlighting renewed investor confidence in its AI strategy and earnings strength. Alphabet Is on the Brink of Beating NVIDIA in Market Value: ETFs to Buy
• Positive Sentiment: Google said it likely thwarted an AI-generated zero-day exploit, underscoring the strength of its cybersecurity capabilities and AI threat-detection tools. Google says it likely thwarted effort by hacker group to use AI for ‘mass exploitation event’
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is expanding Google Finance into Europe as part of its AI-focused product rollout, supporting the case for continued AI-driven innovation across its ecosystem. Google Finance Continues AI-Focused Expansion With EU Launch
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet is planning its first yen-denominated bond offering to help fund rising AI infrastructure spending, adding to its recent debt raises in other currencies. Alphabet considers first yen bond sale to fund AI goals
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports that short interest increased were based on zero shares reported, so they do not appear to provide meaningful directional signal for GOOGL.
• Negative Sentiment: The U.S. Commerce Department removed details from a public page about AI security testing involving Google, Microsoft, and xAI, which could raise mild regulatory transparency questions. Microsoft, Google, xAI security test details deleted from US government website

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $388.64 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $156.16 and a one year high of $402.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.71 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.26. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $322.04 and a two-hundred day moving average of $313.71.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. The company had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.98 billion. On average, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 6.41%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. CICC Research upped their price target 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. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, May 4th. New Street Research upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $407.86.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.00, for a total transaction of $37,842.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 18,621 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,908,391. This represents a 0.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.65, for a total transaction of $348,232.50. Following the sale, the director directly owned 3,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,187,638.65. This represents a 22.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 158,553 shares of company stock valued at $47,951,856. Corporate insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.