Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund Sells 9,151 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund lowered its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 6.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 132,023 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 9,151 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 1.6% of Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund’s holdings, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $23,420,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. IFS Advisors LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 400.0% during the 2nd quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Robbins Farley boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 60.0% during the second quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 58.7% during the second quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Fairman Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 121.3% in the second quarter. Fairman Group LLC now owns 177 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the period. Finally, University of Illinois Foundation bought a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $310.52 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $3.75 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.62, a PEG ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $283.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $230.73. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $328.67.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%.The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.12 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 8.28%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $283.48, for a total transaction of $9,213,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,337,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $662,526,494.12. The trade was a 1.37% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total value of $4,408,034.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,635,348.70. This represents a 29.30% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 225,528 shares of company stock valued at $61,296,884 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research reports. Loop Capital raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Scotiabank set a $336.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities set a $279.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $313.04.

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.