Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Has $113.21 Million Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lowered its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 4.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 594,454 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 26,017 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.0% of Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky's holdings, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky's holdings in Alphabet were worth $113,208,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 2.5% during the 3rd 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 purchasing an additional 264,962 shares during the period. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter valued at about $166,000. McIlrath & Eck LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 12.9% in the third quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 13,575 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,270,000 after buying an additional 1,546 shares in the last quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $263,000. Finally, Advisory Resource Group boosted its position in Alphabet by 8.7% during the 3rd quarter. Advisory Resource Group now owns 10,277 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,718,000 after acquiring an additional 822 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $202.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a "sell" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $208.38.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG traded up $3.22 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $160.94. 11,554,703 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 21,070,256. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $165.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $177.19. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $208.70. The company has a market cap of $1.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. On average, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Alphabet's payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,293,285.89. This trade represents a 2.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 1,340 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 148,163 shares of company stock valued at $25,361,647. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by 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.